Odd2 Reboot
by RavenSara84
Summary: Max has developed a crush on someone that he knows would never like him back, he'll be in for a surprise. Revised version
1. Chapter 1

Title: Odd2

Rating: T

Pairing: KaixMax

Notes: This is me finally upgrading my first yaoi fanfic from a decade ago; hopefully this one will be superior to the old one and with an actual plot… Maybe.

Summary: Max has developed a crush on someone he didn't think would ever like him back.

The Asian tournament had its grand opening, the four bladers, along with their tech watched the opening with trepidation, excitement and indifference. The feelings that came from each blader made the team seem rather off, but somehow they would pull off a win, they weren't lacking in determination, or skill.

Once they returned to the cabin that they were staying at, four of them stayed up, although one was busy fixing up things for their beyblades, while the other three talked amongst themselves. Of course it was soon time to sleep, the Chinese blader yawned dramatically, and making a point to the other's that they needed to rest.

"We do have a match to win tomorrow," The brown haired boy said, shutting down his laptop and gathering his equipment, although to everyone's surprise, he didn't turn in, instead he left the room to continue his work elsewhere.

"Do you think the Chief ever sleeps?" Rei asked the others, worried about the boy.

"Don't worry Rei, he'll be fine, I've never really seen him that tired before," Max said, making his way to his bed that was between the Chinese balder and the captain of the team, who was currently sleeping and faced away from them.

As they all settled down, with Rei switching off the light, they all drifted off to sleep.

Although Kai, the team's captain, was wide awake, unable to sleep properly; he wasn't sure why he couldn't sleep either, considering they had travelled a long way and surly the jet-lag would have kicked in at some point? Not to mention that he had to deal with Tyson for the majority of the journey, although Kenny and Max tried to help, somehow the boy kept bugging him.

_Can't he take a hint?_ He had thought to himself at the time.

Now here he was just lying on the bed, which was surprisingly comfortable, and listening to the other members of his team sleeping. Tyson was tossing and turning as he always did, no matter how violently he tossed around in his bed, he had never fallen out.

_Yet_. Kai thought to himself with distain, he knew that he would never, ever get along with the loud blader, it was obvious the two of them were far too different to ever be able to put their differences aside, not that Kai would ever want to.

He knew that Kenny was still awake, having heard the boy leave the room before the other's turned in, gone off to work on Max and Tyson's beyblades, while Rei's beyblade, Drigger, was always with him, when he was awake he'd let Kenny look it over, but never at night.

Kai thought about Rei, he knew there was something not quite right about him but he couldn't figure out what that could be.

_He's no traitor, he's far too loyal._ Kai sat up and looked over at the Chinese boy, sleeping on his side and only turning in his sleep every so often.

Now his thoughts turned to Max, in the bed right next to him, he was curled up, looking content and relaxed, unlike the chirpy and happy look he has when he is awake. Hyper-active at times.

_He does look cute…_ Kai paused for a moment and realised what he had just thought, he shook his head and turned over to face the wall; _I've been around these idiots for too long…_ Even as he thought those words, looking away at the wall to his other side, he could still picture Max's face, how it looked so peaceful when he slept.

_Tch, it doesn't matter, even if we were both that way we could never be together. I have my reputation to protect and Max… Max isn't like me at all; he really is the polar opposite. Always so cheerful and ready to try and make friends with anyone, even me! If he wasn't straight he'd most likely go for Tyson, if Tyson was also that way. They click together._ He paused, feeling his eyelids getting heavy; _Early match tomorrow…_

XXX

Max breathed a sigh of relief, unable to get over the fact that they had almost been kicked out of the tournament, all due to Tyson sleeping in and Ray staying behind to wake him up. Of course to make matters worse a landslide happened.

_Good thing Kai decided to battle while they were on their way or we really would have been kicked out._ Max thought to himself and gave a quick glance at the captain of their team; _He always acts so cold and distant, but somehow, I don't think he really is like that. Maybe it's just a persona he had when blading, since it's what he focuses on most; he probably never has any real friends. But when he sleeps, he looks really peaceful, he looks so normal without the scowl on his face all the time, although I do have to wonder if the two are the same, even though I know they are. _Max looked away, watching the sunset; _I owe him one, after all he is the one who helped me get Draciel, if he hadn't made such a powerful attack I would never have gotten Draciel! Even if he managed to beat me, I guess I knew that I was never going to win the match, after all, he was the returning champ, there was no way I could have defeated him; though when Tyson defeated him. I think he was crushed. I really felt sorry for him, Kai had never lost a match before and then he loses to this 'rooky', which I guess Tyson is. _

_It's unfair to say that about Tyson, but… I can't take back what is true, besides I would never say it to his face; but he never thinks things through, he needs the Chief and Dizzi by his side to help him out, but half the time any advice that is given he'll ignore until the last minute. That must be what bugs Kai that Tyson never thinks, he just goes rushing right in._

_I need to get out of here! I never thought that Tyson could snore, talk, toss and turn all at the same time!_

The blonde haired boy sat up and began to leave his nice, warm bed with reluctance, he slowly made his way towards the common room, a chilled place where the team could all just sit together and relax before they left to go to the arena.

Unbeknownst to him, his neighbour in the bed next to him was also up, and had been for a while, Kai was sitting in the dark watching the moon, thinking about the next battle, when he spotted the lone figure coming into the room.

"Max?" Kai looked at the blonde haired boy, who now looked sheepish.

"Hey Kai," Max said softly, coming over to sit on one of the chairs.

"Why are you up? You're facing the White Tigers tomorrow," Kai scolded him, trying to figure out at the same time what reason the blonde could have for being up.

"I know, but… "He contemplated lying, but knew Kai was too smart to fall for it; "Tyson woke me up,"

The bluenette nodded slowly, it was the reason why he always went up to the back of the bus, he could sleep without much trouble and the other's never noticed. Tyson had a habit of always keeping him up most nights, although it was through no real fault of his own, but regardless the lack of sleep never affected Kai's game, as he had proven today.

"We really should do something about him," Kai finally said, though he never looked back at Max though, keeping his eyes to the window.

"Tie him up and gag him?" Max suggested jokingly; which brought a slight smile to the pale boy's lips.

"I'm sure Mr Dickinson would love that," Kai said sarcastically.

"Well, we need our sleep too," Max then had a moment of inspiration; "Besides, you could take Tyson's place,"

"I'll only battle when or if I have to," Kai told him; "You three can take care of the rest, besides Max, you could use some training,"

"Hey!" Max felt the sting to the word; _Does Kai think I'm not good enough?_

"Just remember when you got your bit beast," Kai pointed out; "Just before we left to come here,"

Max had moved over to hear Kai, since the boy had whispered most of his words so that the rest didn't wake up. They were close to each other, practically feeling each other's breath on their cheeks, until they both heard a noise they moved back at the same time.

"Guys?" Kenny came into the room and yawned, covering his mouth with his hand; "Why are you up? You have to face the White Tiger's tomorrow,"

"Tyson won't shut up," Kai said bluntly

"What are you talking about?"

"You need to hear it to believe us Chief," Max said and got up, brushing past Kai to push Kenny into the room.

"Unbelieveable,"

"Yea," Max said with a slight smile; "Bet you've never seen that in your stats, huh Chief?"

Kai smirked at that joke; it was a common phrase that Kenny used.

"Humph, I'm sure we can sleep through it," Kenny said, slightly grumpily; "It's only one night," He walked away from the two and climbed into his bed.

"One more night?" Max repeated with a sigh; "By tomorrow I would have gone mad,"

Kai walked into the room, Kenny had a point, they could last it out for one more night; "Just try to sleep Max," He got into his bed and face the wall, trying to will sleep to come to him.

Max followed and curled back into his bed, looking over at Kai's two toned hair, wondering what would have happened if they got too close to each other again, they had only moved away when they heard a noise.

_Maybe once this is all over we can talk… But what if this was nothing more than an accident?_ Max tried to shake the thought away; _But it's Kai, I had invaded his personal space right? He would have done something about it right away, not just let it be for so many minutes._

Both the boy's had admitted in their heads that they liked the other, whether obvious or not, but neither of them believed that the other would actually want to be with the other.

_Just need to get through this next day._ They both thought at the same time.

XXX

The next morning they were waiting on the bus to pick them up, Kai and Kenny had both managed to grab as much sleep as they could, as did Max, but the blonde blader showed how tired he was, he wasn't as bouncy as he normally was. He had bags under his eyes, but the other three never noticed it, but Kai did.

However, although the bluenette blader was mean and rude, and blunt, he just couldn't face going to Max and telling him, right after Kenny had announced the positions they would be taking, that he would take his place.

_He still wants to battle, even though he's tired. _Kai thought to himself, although impressed with Max, he was also a bit disappointed too; _He needs to realise that he has to focus on the match ahead, to ignore the weakness in his head, to know that this match will help our team get ahead and go the full way, to the World Championship. _He paused in his thoughts; _What am I doing?_ He didn't understand why he was feeling so, protective of Max.

He sighed as he followed the others onto the bus, once again taking a quick nap in the back of the bus.

XXX

Max had lost twice to Gary, with Kai shaking his head slightly; _You've lost to a guy with half the brain of Tyson!_ He wanted to shout, but there was something more important to focus on, Rei would be going against his old friend, which would also prove to be a close match if he allowed his feelings to get in the way.

Max had noticed that Kai was glaring at something, although he wasn't sure if it was because of how badly he had lost that match, or due to who Rei was fighting against; _Maybe it's both._ The blonde thought; noticing that the quiet boy took more interest in this match than his own.

_Maybe he likes Rei? _Max shook his head, although his team just thought he was trying to wake himself up; _I shouldn't assume that Kai is like that though, but maybe Rei is closer to Kai like a friend, they are both serious when they need to be._ He looked down at his hands; _I need to talk to someone about this, maybe I'm just being paranoid… Maybe Kai has lots of girls waiting for him when he gets home. Come on Max, this is nothing more than a stupid crush, it should affect you; it's Kai, he doesn't seem able to love anything._

Max tried to focus on the match, watching as the two bit beasts crashed into each other; _I bet one day I will look back on this and laugh… Probably the day when Kai is married, to a woman who can get through that wall of his._

Kai kept his eyes on the battle in front of him, happy that Rei managed to win his match, but knowing that it would be a lot harder, since it was Tyson against Lee.

_Tyson's will be a sitting duck…_ Kai thought to himself, but found his mind straying from the match and onto a certain blonde haired boy next to him; _This might very well end in a draw…_ He thought as he watched each blade slam into the other.

In the end, the final match was between Rei and Lee and the Bladebreakers were lucky that Rei managed to defeat his friend and former team mate.

_We won! _Max cheered loudly and ran over to hug Rei; "We're off to America!"

Tyson cheered as well, joining in on the hugging, while Kenny cheered, quickly checking over the data that Dizzi managed to collect before joining the others, with Kai remaining to the side. 

_Maybe I should talk to my dad about this when I get home._ Max thought as they moved out of the arena; _I really hope he can help me out, because this is just a really bad distraction, one that I don't need._

They walked towards the bus, with Kai being the last one to get on and returning to his usual seat at the back.

"Oh come on Kai, you're not ashamed of us are you?" Tyson teased him from where he sat at the front.

"Tyson, I can sit where I want," Kai snapped back at him.

Tyson turned round and looked at his three friends; "Jeez, what's his problem?" Although Kai heard, he never replied.

"Leave him alone," Max said and looked over at Kai for a moment, those dark brown eyes locked with his and he looked back at the other boy; "Maybe Kai isn't happy by the way that we won,"

"Eh?" Tyson looked surprised; "What do you mean?"

"Well, I only won one battle, Rei did great, and you only won one battle too, if you think about it, it was Rei who pretty much won the whole thing for us in the end," Max tried to point out

"Hey we still did a good job though," Tyson tried to argue back, not wishing to see Kai's side of it, not _wanting _to.

"Tch, leave him alone Tyson, you were sloppy," Kai finally spoke up, having heard everything; "At least max has admitted that he could do better. You had better be more focused at the American Tournament, because it is a lot harder than this,"

Rei nodded slowly; "He does have a point Tyson, we _were_ sloppy when we battled the White Tigers. We could do with extra training when we get back,"

"Don't worry, we'll train when we get home, no problems, it's a bit late now and we can't exactly train on the plane either," Max said with a smile.

"Good idea, you're dad had a bey-dish underneath his shop right?"

"Yea! We can all train there!" Tyson perked up a bit.

Kai watched it all and felt his stomach knot over, he wasn't sure why, but the fact that Max had defended him – although he didn't need it, name calling was nothing to him.

_Am I… Jealous?_ Kai wondered, as he watched the three talk, Rei was still smiling at Max; _No, even if it was… I don't need any help! I don't need friends, they are for the weak, I am strong, and to be strong I need to rely on myself._

The two boy's kept away from each other for the rest of the journey, none of their team mates noticed, thinking that Kai was just being Kai.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Odd 2 Chapter 2

Rating: T

Pairing: KaixMax

Summary: Max is so confused about his feelings, not only that, but what of Kai?

When Max finally arrived home he went straight to bed, his body couldn't face having to speak to his father about something like that just yet, not when he hadn't had enough sleep to deal with it.

When he woke up the next day, getting changed and seeing his dad make lunch, he moved to hug him, having not seen him in a while and although there was always the phone, it just wasn't the same.

It was over lunch that Max told his father about his problem, his _crush_ on Kai that could affect his performance in the next tournament.

"Don't worry about it Max," His father said with a smile as he took a sip of his tea; "It's just a phase, soon you'll have a crush on someone else,"

All Max could do was nod in agreement, although his dad didn't mind that he was gay, at times Max wasn't sure if he _actually_ believed him; as though this was also a phase he was going through and would grow out of it soon.

"Besides, from what I have seen of Kai, he doesn't care about anyone, doesn't matter how hard you try son, he just won't give anyone a chance," He continued on; "Tyson tried, even after he beat him he kept extending a hand of friendship, but nothing happened, Kai just shoved it back into his face,"

Max wanted to correct his father, to point out that Kai would never open up to Tyson, since he viewed the boy as his rival, they could never be friends.

_Maybe Kai will like me as I am?_ He tried to encourage himself as he left the shop, shaking his head; _Nah, pigs are more likely to fly first._

As Max left the shop, his crush was busy training on the other side of the city. _Trying_ to train, but kept getting thoughts of a certain blonde haired boy springing in his mind.

_Tch, what is wrong with me? Why won't he leave me alone? Why can't I keep his face out of my head like I can keep everyone else, even my grandfather!_ Kai thought to himself angrily, his blade continuing to spin in the dish, he sighed in defeat and opened his hand, his Dranzer blade returned to its owner and he walked away; _I need some air._

As the bluenette walked along the riverside, not thinking of much at all, he spotted the person who had invaded his thoughts.

He kept a close eye on the boy, wondering why he was so far from his home and not working in the store that his father ran, like he normally did.

"Max?" Kai called over, deciding to make himself known to the boy who was clearly preoccupied with his own thoughts and never noticed him walking closer.

Blue eyes blinked at him in surprise; "Kai?" He snapped out of his daydream.

Kai nodded at him and looked out over the river; "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I just needed some air, jetlag still over me, it's hard to train and help out at the shop when you're exhausted," He explained and Kai snorted in disbelief.

"Then make time," He stated, but regretted it a moment later, remembering that Max's father worked in a beyblade shop and with his son being in the team that had just won the Asian championships, it would be busier than normal.

"I know that," Max said in defence, and Kai felt a bit of relief, he didn't have to apologise, not that he was likely to anyway, but he had felt at the time it would have been needed.

"Why walk all this way?" They began to walk along the river together, both of them moving at the same pace.

"I don'tknow… I wasn't really thinking at the time, I just needed to get out of there," He turned to look at his captain, smiling he asked; "So, what's your excuse?"

"I needed to get out," Kai said bluntly.

"Yea, it's a relaxing area huh?"

Kai nodded in agreement, but other than that remained silent.

The two of them could feel the tension in the air, they both moved their hands at the same time, going towards the other and each received a static shock. As far as the two were aware, no thought were being processed, it was all just movement as Max moved closer to Kai and felt Kai's lips on his own.

Once that feeling, that _touch_ finally reached their brains, they both had startling responses.

_What am I doing? I can't be kissing Kai…. He's going to kill…_ Max train of thought left for a moment; _Wait, he should have pushed me off by now!_

Although part of Max didn't want the kiss to end, he knew it had to, but he was surprised that Kai was the one to pull away, both of them wide eyes as they looked at each other and Max gulped, wondering what he could say, or what he should say.

"Hey," Was all he said, feeling a blush rise to his cheeks; _Nice one Max, what a way to start a conversation. _He cursed inside his head.

Kai just looked at him for a moment, looking slightly flushed as well; "So, now what do we do?"

Max blinked at him in surprise once more, not understanding what he meant; "What?

_It can't be a good idea to kiss the captain of your team! Why did I do that? I bet there is a rule somewhere that says you aren't meant to do that!_

"The others can't know of this," His voice wasn't cold, at least compared to how his tone was normally; it seemed slightly more gentle than normal.

"Uh, don't worry, I don't want them to know either,"

Kai looked at him, raising an eyebrow; "So, they know nothing about you…."

"No," Max interrupted him; "No they don't, but you wouldn't…"

Kai smiled, it was a small smile, but at least it was a smile, which was reassuring to Max; "No, I won't tell, after all there is no reason for me to do so,"

Before Max could question him, Kai had moved close to him and once more they kissed, Kai's hands moved to Max's shoulders, pulling him against his chest, while Max ran his hands through Kai's hair.

_I never expected Kai to have such soft hair!_ Max thought, his mind and body enjoying the moment he was in; _This is way better than any daydream!_

_They can't find out._ Kai thought to himself, although enjoying the feelings that surged through his body, he still had his reputation to uphold; _As team captain I can't let them know, they'll most likely complain about it._

Once more Kai broke off the kiss, stepping away from the blonde again and turning his back on him.

"You'd better head back, I promise, no one will know," Once he said that he walked up the steps, appearing to head for his own home as Max just watched him leave, feeling rather confused and alone, he was about to walk back the way him came when he heard someone call out his name and looking up he saw Kai looking at him in annoyance.

"Come on," He gestured for the blonde to follow him and Max ran up the steps to stand next to him; "Thought I would just go?"

"Well, yea," He replied with a nod; "You're Kai after all,"

Max was awarded with a smirk; "I guess so, come on, the quickest way back isn't exactly the safest,"

"But why not go the…"

"Because if the shop is busy, wouldn't it be better for you to help out?"

For a moment the two were quiet as they walked along the streets, but it was Kai who broke the silence once more.

"What are we going to do?"

"We can keep it quiet, like you said, right?"

Kai nodded, although he found it reassuring that Max wasn't going to speak about it he knew all too well that a secret like this wasn't going to keep for too long, at some point they would be found out.

"This is as far as I can take you, the rest of the route is pretty safe," Kai said to Max who just smiled.

"Thanks Kai,"

With a nod the bluenette walked away, heading for home, back the way they had come.

XXX

The next morning Kai woke up, with clarity he remembered what had happened the day before and touched his lips, although the taste of Max had long gone.

The kiss itself had been rather nice, a feeling that he had never experienced before in his life, it was soft and delicate, slightly unsure.

_I'll wait._ He thought to himself as he got up; _He doesn't need to know, this might be nothing. Heck he could have forgotten about what happened already._

Later on that morning Max finally woke up, getting up he went down to help his father with the shop, although he was distracted, thinking about Kai and what happened the day before.

_I didn't expect that from Kai. _ He thoughts to himself and then began to wonder; _We need to keep ourselves distance, so that the other's won't know what's going on. Keeping it a secret from Tyson will be a piece of cake, but Rei has sharp eyes and Chief will notice over time too, although Dizzi will probably be the one to point it out…_ He let out a sigh, hoping that life wasn't going to become too difficult for them; _As nice as that kiss was, I doubt we'll be able to do it again._

Of course neither of the boy's realised that Kenny had also been by the river that night, just by the bridge, although he had been bust checking out everyone's stats on his laptop, so he never noticed them, but his bitbeast Dizzi had. She might not have eyes, but like all bitbeasts she could sense things; and Kai and Max had been spotted by her. However Dizzi, for all her sassiness, was still a bitbeast, who didn't really know what love was, so she remained silent, trying to figure out what heightened emotion that she had sensed that night.

Although the two boy's kept thinking of the other, they both stayed away, trying to focus on the next championships in America. When they saw each other on the plane, Kai nodded to him slightly, no one would have noticed, but Max knew it was for him. A basic 'hello' that the bluenette couldn't utter because of how it would look; thankfully the only one who would have noticed that was Rei, who was catching a plane from China, since he wanted to stay in his home village again.

Max chattered on to Tyson and Chief about his mum, although he managed to keep himself calm, so he wasn't jumping up and down on his seat, although he kept talking; his eyes would glance over at Kai every so often, with the other boy well aware of it, although not doing or saying anything about it.

The blonde felt his heart hammer away at his chest every time he looked over at him, to such an extent that he had to look away; and again Kai noticed it, although rather than enjoying the attention he wondered how it would affect the basic game plan that Kenny had planned out roughly before they left.

The beyblade tech had managed to speak to him alone about the battle preparations, so as not to make the same mistake as they did in the Asian tournaments.

"I know we still won, but maybe we should tweak it a bit…" Kenny trailed off, although happy and confident to talk about beyblades and the like, he was always intimidated by Kai.

"Do whatever you want," Kai told him with a slight nod; "Just make sure the training is harder,"

"I… Er… I was…" Kenny looked around himself, checking some notes on his laptop and then looked back at Kai, who just stared at him; "Couldn't you do the training?"

The bluenette had sighed; "All Tyson did was complain…"

"I know that, but it _had_ improved his level of play, I think if you made it even harder, for _everyone_ then they would all get stronger,"

The older teen nodded; "All right, fine,"

"Th… Thanks Kai,"

The teen was almost about to ask the boy why he was thanking him, but decided not to bother, Kenny was becoming a nervous wreck when he was alone in his company for too long.

XXX

When they arrived at the hotel, Kai had a room all to himself, just the way he liked it. Tyson and Chief shared a room, leaving Max and Rei to share; with that knowledge Kai felt the little stabs of jealousy but never said a thing to Max, after all they had to keep the rest of the team under the allusion that he was cold and… As Max had said once; a wet blanket.

He was looking out the window, watching the world go by when someone knocked on his door. Getting up, he stretched slowly and walked over to the door; hoping that it wasn't Tyson here to bug him.

_Could Tyson keep quiet for so long?_ He wondered to himself as he opened the door to find Max, who quickly came into the room when Kai backed away.

Closing the door behind him, the two held each other, as if they had always done this.

Kai looked down at the blonde in his arms, enjoying the feeling of having someone there with him, but also worried; _Max wouldn't have come here just for a hug…_

"Max?"

"Sorry I…"

"What?" Kai was blunt once more, one thing the whole team knew would never change, Kai would always be blunt, there was no getting around that fact.

"I… Thought you would want some company?" Max said with a slight smile, which didn't fool Kai.

"What's wrong Maxie?"

The blonde never made any notion of hearing the new nickname Kai had just given him, instead he sighed; "I've… I've been having these weird dreams. I know it's silly, they are only dreams, but I though you could… Help?"

The older teen nodded; _Dreams, this is something for Rei to deal with, not me, what do I know about dreams?_

Max took a seat by Kai's bed. As the other sat down on the bed itself.

"It's about the All Stars, I know it's my mom's team but… It's weird,"

"Max, get to the point of your dream," Kai told him sternly, not wanting to bet around the bush, the sooner he knew what was going on the better he could help. If he could help at all that is.

"Oh, right, well we were battling them; but they not only wrecked our beyblades, but also our bitbeasts. Then they just left, my mom with them," Max shuddered and Kai reached out to touch his hand, causing the blonde to smile; "I know I'm a better blader _with_ Draciel, without him I'd be nothing…"

"Max," Kai interrupted him and he looked up to the bluenette who glared at him; "You were never a bad blader, you had _me_ on the run before you gained your bit beast, remember? You would still be on the team even without Draciel,"

Max shook his head; "Until Dranzer was let loose," He reminded him.

"Are you forgetting the second match?" Kai pointed out.

"No, I remember it," Max said with a nod; "What about it?"

"You beat me, and I _did _bring out Dranzer. No matter what happens Max, you _are_ a good blader, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, got it?"

Max smiled cheerfully; "Yea, I got it, thanks Kai,"

He shrugged; "What's a team captain for?"

Max looked thoughtful for a moment; "I thought you just wanted to see Tyson fall?"

They both laughed at that comment and Max moved to sit next to Kai, resting his head on his shoulder, although he felt sleep washing over him.

_I should get going… _He thought to himself, but couldn't find the strength to move, he felt Kai's arm move around him and pulled him further onto the bed; "Um… Kai…"

"Go to sleep Maxie," Kai whispered.

Once those words were spoken, Max did just that.

It didn't feel like they had fallen asleep for too long when they heard a loud voice cry out;

"Oh my god!"

Kai sat up, quickly backing away from Max; and glared at the figure in the door way. Their eyes were wide in shock, while Max just looked from one boy to the other, trying to figure out what he should do, aside from blushing that they had been caught so easily.


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Odd 2 Chapter 3

Rating: T

Pairing: KaixMax

Summary: The new couple have been found out, but they don't want any one on the team to know, not yet. But considering tensions are running high, Kai doesn't help the situation.

"Oh my god!" A male voice said in surprise.

Max looked down, feeling his face going red, while Kai just glared at the boy, whose mouth was open wide like a fish.

_Of all the people to learn about us, why did it have to be him?_ Max thought to himself, his blue eyes glancing over to Kai and then to the other boy, although it was his friend in the doorway, his _best_ friend, it didn't mean he wanted him to be the first one to learn about his new relationship with the captain of their tea.

"What's going on?" Tyson finally managed to ask, not sure if he had seen what he thought he did, surely there was some kind of simple explanation to it all?

"Tyson..." Max looked up at him, trying to figure out what he could tell his friend, without feeling uncomfortable, or making Kai angry.

"We were talking and fell asleep, is that a problem? You do it all the time," Kai snapped at Tyson, thinking on his feet; he didn't want Tyson to be the first one to learn of their relationship, not when the relationship was still in the first stages.

"Well... Yea, but..." Tyson was about to defend himself of his sleeping habits.

"We were a lot sleepier than we thought," Max said with a small shrug and grinned at his friend.

"All right, fine, see you two at breakfast," Tyson said, not willing to stick around for much longer with the way Kai was glaring at him.

_Man, what is up with him?_ Tyson thought to himself as he left, but there was still a niggling doubt as to what Max had told him, did they really just fall asleep; _This is Kai, he would never allow himself to just fall sleep like that, would he?_

Tyson just tried to push the thoughts from his mind, trying to ignore the _hurt_ that came up when he saw Max sleeping peacefully next to the bluenette.

Kai closed the door after Tyson left and sighed; "That was too close," He sat down and Max rested his head against his shoulder.

"Yea, but why would Tyson barge in like that?" Max wondered out loud, his friend was normally rather loud _before _he came into a room, so you were well aware that he was coming.

"Who knows, whatever happens inside Tyson's head should just stay there," He commented and pulled Max close enough to kiss him, before they got up for breakfast.

"I'll go down the back way," He told the blonde who just nodded.

"All right, so that they think you've been training?" Max asked and he nodded; "But… Won't Tyson just tell the others?"

"Doubt it, chances of the other's believing him are slim,"

XXX

Tyson was eating faster than usual, choking a bit more often when he spotted Kai and Max; although the former came from the training room side. Tyson might have been slow at times, but he didn't believe for a second that once he had left the room that Kai went down to train; and for such a short period of time?

Something didn't add up, he was sure the two had been making out when he came into the room, and it also got under his skin that it was _Max _who got to see Kai's gentler side; although he wasn't sure why he was feeling like though.

Once the two sat down with the team, getting their own breakfast before doing so, Kai casually glanced over to Tyson, noticing that the loud-mouth was being his usually, overly annoying and obviously loud self. He wasn't surprised that the other's hadn't noticed, it was something rather minor considering that Tyson was eating so much, everyone else would think he was okay; Kai wasn't fooled, Tyson might be eating a lot, but the fact he was choking on it showed that he wasn't all right, added to that was the looks he sent to Max, who never noticed.

_What is up with him?_ Kai thought as he quietly sipped his tea, not sure what was wrong with the other boy to have him _glare_ at his best friend; _Is it because of me? Does he feel that Max has betrayed him because he was with me? Or has he seen through our lie?_ He also wondered if it could be both, Tyson wasn't the quickest off the mark, but he _was_ smart at times; _I guess we need to talk…_ He dreaded it, Tyson was his rival, and to have a 'talk' of any kind wasn't going to be easy. On the other side, he was Max's friend, a good one, despite what he thought about him personally. It wouldn't be fair on Max if his best friend was distant because of _him_, it was something that would need to be done anyway, but Kai got the feeling that he might have some kind of problem with Tyson.

Then again, he always got the feeling that Tyson would be a problem in some way.

"Tyson, once you've finished choking on that…" Kai said with an eyebrow raised in the other's direction, the other three looked over at them in surprise that Kai had started to speak; "We're going to train," He glanced at Max, who nodded slightly, Rei noticed and smiled slightly.

"Wha…?" Tyson began after he swallowed the last of his food.

"It'll be good for you Tyson, Kai is more of a challenge to you than I am," Rei pointed out with a nod; "Besides I need to get my blade looked at by Kenny and I bet Max needs to fix up Dracile,"

"Fine then," Tyson looked at him and stood up; "Let's go,"

Kai got up and followed, not at all put off by Tyson being brash, it was part of his personality and perhaps a beybattle would let him lose some steam.

Max watched the two go and wondered, with a hint of worry; _what is Kai thinking?_

XXX

The two came into the training room, there were several bey-dishes around the room, but right now it was still rather quiet, most people would be doing other things before they came back down, although there was some kids about, it wasn't too many that would annoy Kai.

Tyson looked over at him, wondering why Kai would decide to train him now, he had never trained with him before, not really; aside from making sarcastic comments when Chief was check out his stats to see how much he had improved when he trained with Rei or Max.

"Ready?" Kai asked, that mask, that _cold, unfeeling_ mask on, the one he had seen removed, if only for a second, when he was with Max.

"Yea," Tyson said, readying his blade for battle, his head couldn't shake off the picture of Kai _not_ being grumpy when he was around Max, it just seemed so unreal.

With those thoughts in his mind, he couldn't focus on the battle that was happening before him, allowing Kai to defeat him for the first time; although the other boy didn't seem surprised by his win, but Tyson was.

"I knew this would happen one day, you need to stay focused," Kai berated him who just stared defiantly at him.

"I am focused!" He protested.

"Really? I defeated you without too much hassle," Kai stated, which wasn't strictly true, but he needed Tyson to wake up and realise that he couldn't goof off like he always did.

"I train just as much as you do Kai!" Tyson snapped at him, forgetting the image of this morning; "Besides it's a best out of _three_ match,"

"Do you?" Kai questioned him; "Because I always find you hanging about Kenny and Dizzi,"

"Well maybe I wouldn't if _someone_ wasn't always acting like a cold-heart bastard," Tyson threw back.

"May I _wouldn't_ act like that if someone knew how to train properly," Kai said, trying not to get riled up by this, which was rather minor and had _nothing_ to do with the reason why he brought Tyson down to begin with.

"I do know how to train! _You _just don't seem to believe that people need a break that people need to have _fun_! The rest of the team got into this sport because it was a hobby, it was for fun!" Tyson yelled, feeling the frustration take over, making him shaky and wanting to hit something, anything, namely Kai.

"Humph, maybe you shouldn't be here then, if you just think this is a game," Kai never finished his sentence, since Tyson interrupted him.

"You know something Kai? You're not _worthy_ to be the captain of our team, you don't even know how to _act_ like one," He snipped, he never thought of Kai as a worthy captain, sure he was a great blader, but captain? No.

"Oh really?" Kai moved away from the dish and slowly walked towards him, his beyblade back in his pocket.

"Yea, Rei would do a better job than you, at least he knows when to stop pushing people,"

"So why not tell Mr Dickinson? I only joined this team because he asked," Kai said, stopping a few feet before him.

"Maybe I will…" Tyson trailed off, feeling the frustration flee, he was bluffing, he'd never go and ask Mr Dickinson to have Kai put down and put Rei in as Captain, Kai was essentially the ace card, he was a strong blader and knew a lot more about the sport than the rest of them. All he wanted was to see some kind of emotion from the other boy.

"You weren't focused on the match Tyson, if you are so easily distracted then it will become a problem for the whole team," Kai disregarded his commented, going straight to the point; "We barely won the Asian Tournament, now that we are here we _need_ to be focused," Tyson said nothing, just looking at him; "If you have a problem with me say so now, cos I'm guessing that the lack of focus is to do with this morning,"

"Wha…" Tyson felt a blush creep up his face, was he that obvious?

Kai just nodded slowly, as if catching him off guard was another part of his plan; "Yea, figured as much,"

"You two were making out right?"

Kai just looked at him blankly, making it hard for Tyson to figure out if it was true or not.

"I saw you two, why lie about it?"

"Lie? I'm not, we were sleeping, even so, perhaps we don't want to talk about it," Kai stated, making it clear to Tyson that he was now on thin ice; "What is going on between myself and Max has nothing to do with you,"

With that said Kai walked away from him, leaving Tyson completely confused.

XXX

The team went on the bus, taking them to the first match of the tournament, Max looked over at Kai, who was in his 'usual' seat at the back, away from the rest of them; his eyes shifted to the bluenette and to Tyson, then back again.

_What happened when they were training?_ He wondered, it was unusual for Tyson to be quiet, he had never actually seen it happen before, so something _must_ have happened. _Did they fight? But, what would they fight about?_ He tried to figure it out, but got nothing; _Maybe I should ask Kai later._

Tyson looked out the window, trying to figure out Kai. He was right of course, it wasn't his business what he and Max got up to, if anything, but he had _seen_ them kissing! He tried to push it all out of his head; he had a match to win after all. That is if Kai was going to let him battle.

Kai had his eyes closed, not wanting anyone to speak to him, and would be happy to ignore anyone, with the pretence that he was sleeping being used as his excuse, not that any of them would bother to speak to him, but he liked to make sure anyway.

His mind wandered away from the impending match to Max. He was playing with fire and he knew it, if his Grandfather was to learn of his closeness to the blonde there would be hell to pay. He hadn't been far to Tyson though, he _didn't _care if the team knew about him and Max, but it was still new and fresh for the two of them, it was better to keep it quiet. No one in the team would judge them, Rei himself was bi, having gone out on a date with Mariah and then Lee, although he never told any of his team mates, Kai had heard him getting ready and talking on the phone to the two. Kenny wouldn't care either, so long as it didn't affect their game it was fine, at least that was what Kai figured he would be like, the young tech didn't really seem to be interested in too much aside from beyblades and technology.

As it was when they arrived Kai never changed the rota that Kenny had planned out carefully the night before, he kept Tyson on for the match, carefully making comments during the match to make him focus more.

After the match was over they were brought back to the hotel where they went there seprate ways for a few hours.

Kai lay on his bed, looking up at the ceiling, not really thinking of anything when someone knocked on his door. Quickly moving off the bed he walked over to the door, opening it saw Max ready to knock again.

"Eh, hi," Max said with a slight blush, putting his arm down.

"What's wrong Max?" Kai asked, slightly more gruff than he ment.

"I…" Max was slightly surprised but brushed it off; "I was wanting to know what happened between you and Tyson? He was acting off…"

"Just a home truth," Kai said, but Max wasn't one to drop something when his best friend was involved.

"But what kind? Come on Kai, we all know you don't like Tyson, for various reasons, what did you talk to him about?"

"That he needs to focus in battle," Kai said, but Max gestured for him to continue and he sighed; "He asked about this morning,"

"What did you say?" Max smiled and shook his head; "You left it vague didn't you?"

"Yes, it's nothing to do with him…"

"And nothing has happened," Max added; "They can wait. Is that why he was so quiet? It sounds like something he would bounce back from,"

"Tch, there was a bit more to it, but that was the …"

"What else was said Kai?" Max asked in a serious tone, so serious that Kai didn't believe it could have come from him.

A moment of being dumbfounded and he replied; "Nothing important, just how he didn't like my being the captain of the team that he should speak to Mr Dickinson about replacing me with Rei"

"You're kidding!" Max was now the one dumbfounded at hearing that.

"No," Kai shook his head and then shrugged his shoulders, not worried about it; "He won't,"

"How do you know that Kai?"

"Because I doubt Rei would take my place…" He noticed the look Max sent him and shook his head; "I wouldn't care if I was replaced by Rei, but Rei himself wouldn't take up the position, it's too much for him, he knows that. Why else didn't he just try to replace Lee in the White Tiger teams?"

Max slowly nodded, understanding and relaxed a bit more; "I thought something might have happened…"

"Tch, like having him declare his love for me?" Kai teased with a small smile; "It's nothing, you have nothing to worry about," He reassured the other, gently kissing him before thinking of something; "How's your mum? She's out here working right?"

Max looked away and frowned; "Yea, but… She's part of the All Stars, one of the trainers,"

Kai remained silent, realising that the All Stars were the champions of America, he had read a lot about them, but they didn't seem like much.

"I see, loyalties are split then?" Kai asked him and those blue eyes looked at him in surprise; "She has her team, but you're her son,"

"The same could be said the other way though," Max countered.

"No, because you're friends rely on you, you would want to _prove_ that you were worth some praise for your skills,"

"I guess… I was hoping for some time with her while I was out here, but instead it's just been quick glances, I noticed that she was in the audience. But she had a scientist next to her,"

"Gathering data, like Kenny," Kai said with a small nod; "Not surprising, they'll want to know our moves,"

"How do we defeat…"

Kai put his hand over his mouth and smiled; "Right now we need to win every match we have, train harder than before, come up with new moves and perfect old ones. _Trust me_ Max, we'll beat them,"

"Yea, course," Max said, but it was half hearted and it was obvious to see.

"Max," Kai said and he looked at him; "Let's train," Before the blonde could protest, Kai dragged him to the training room and took him through his paces.

While training Max began to feel more like himself, no longer did he have the dread of disappointing his mother, or letting his friends down, instead he was focused on the battle with Kai. The perfect distract that he needed.

XXX

It was later on, when they all meet back up for dinner that Rei noticed a bit of tension in the group, and most of it appear to come from Tyson. He didn't know what was wrong, although he could guess it was due to the training from that morning with Kai, though the loud teen never actually said what happened.

_Probably nothing, Kai just likes to train hard, and why shouldn't he? He's been doing this for far longer than most._ Rei thought to himself, but decided to keep an eye on Tyson anyway, just in case.

Throughout the tournament Kai kept his distance to them, although Rei did notice that what Kai did and what he said were two different things, after all he had seen the captain lower his guard when Max was around, of course it wasn't by much, since Kai spotted Rei out of the corner of his eye and his cold exterior went right back up again.

Although the teen was surprised to see Kai showing any other emotion aside from what he showed daily, he was glad Kai was opening up to _someone_. It couldn't be healthy to be so enclosed and private.

It did come to a point when Rei needed to speak to Kai about Tyson, although the tension wasn't suffocating, it was always there when the team was together, but at least when they had the match on they could focus on something else, but it wasn't something that could stay around. He walked up to his room and knocked the door, not really expecting him to answer the first time, he gave it another few seconds before he would knock again, when the door opened with Kai and Max in the room.

"Hey Rei!" Max said cheerfully, his face slightly flushed, his lips swollen.

"Hey guys," He knew he had interrupted something, but to his surprise he found that Kai wasn't glaring at him; _Maybe I haven't interrupted anything?_

"Something wrong?" Kai asked, crossing his arms and leaned against the wall as Rei came into the room and closed the door.

"Sort of," Rei had only prepared to speak to Kai, not Max, not at the same time; but it should be that difficult, Max was always easier to speak to; "You guys have noticed the tension right?"

The two nodded, with Max asking; "Yea, but it's not that bad, we just need to clear the air,"

"Yea but we need to remain focused on our upcoming battles," Rei looked at Kai, since it was his responsibility to do something; "Whatever this is coming from, you two being together…" He gathered that was what was happening, and neither denied it, in fact Max sighed in relief.

"Well, at least someone knows," Max smiled at him and Rei blinked, causing the blonde to giggle and Kai to smile slightly.

"Wait, what?"

"Well, we _are_ together," Max looked over at the bluenette who nodded; "It's just… Well, Tyson found out about us first but, we weren't ready and you _know_ what Tyson is like,"

"A blabber mouth," Rei nodded in sympathy; "I know, but, well that's great for you guys," He smirked at Kai; "It's good to know you can be human too,"

"Oh ha ha," Kai snipped back, but it was all in good humour that Rei could see, there was no warning in Kai's eyes; "I'll speak to Tyson about it…"

"Maybe I should." Max suggested and they looked at him, unsure what he meant; "You already tried that, but you guys are rivals right?" Kai nodded, _everyone _knew, apart from being on the same team, they were rivals; "So you'll get distracted, at least I'm Tyson's friend, I get right to the point without being distracted,"

"Sounds good," Rei said with a slight nod and both he and Max looked at Kai, to see if he approved of the idea to.

"Do what you want," Kai said, dismissing it, Rei looked back at Max who just smiled.

"I should probably just go now, the sooner the better right?" Max said and waved at them as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Kai just looked at Rei, moving away from the wall and towards the bed, retrieving a book and Rei felt akward.

"Er, Kai?"

"Huh?"

"I'm glad for you guy's," Rei smiled and left the room as well, there was no reason to stay.

"Thanks Rei," Kai said softly as the door closed with a soft click, he opened the book that Max had been reading and settled down, the back of his mind wondering how long the blonde would be gone for.

Max stood outside Tyson's room, hearing the boy talk to Chief as he knocked the door.

"Just a minute please!" Chief called out, then cried; "Tyson no!" The door was opened a crack for him and he pushed it open to see Tyson fiddling around with one of Chief's prototypes.

"Hey guy's, having fun?" Max joked with a smile.

"Ah Max, help me would you?" Chief pointed to Tyson; "Please get him to stop touching my things, I am _trying_ to get some bugs out of it and I can't do that if he keeps on touching them!"

"Ah that's cool, I needed to talk to Tyson anyway,"

"Hey! Could you guy's please not talk about me like I'm not here?" Tyson said, putting the invention down.

"Who said that?" Max joked looking around the room as if he was trying to find the voice.

"Haha, very funny Max," Tyson said and gestured for him to sit down on the bed; "What's up?"

"Well, we're going to be open," Max said, he didn't have a clue what to do, but the whole problem stemmed from Tyson finding him and Kai kissing, perhaps if they declared it to the team the tension would simmer down.

"Open about what?" Chief asked, interested in what was going on within the team.

_Is he going to? _Tyson wondered, then he saw the nervous look in Max's eyes and knew it; _Yup, it's an announcement._

"Well, er," Max rubbed the back of his neck; "Myself and Kai… We're dating,"

For a moment there was nothing but silence as Chief took in that piece of information and processed it.

"What? When did this happen?" He exclaimed, although neither boy knew if he was glad about the news or not and he seemed to realise that fact, he took a deep breath before he spoke again. More calmly; "Oh, sorry, it's just… Well, it's _Kai_. But when did it happen?"

"When we came home from the Asian tournament," Max told them; "But, well at the time we weren't sure about it, if we could even _call _it a relationship. But we wanted to tell you guys about it now,"

"_You _wanted to tell us," Tyson corrected him; "Because we all know that Kai wouldn't tell us, even if he was next to you,"

Max knew he shouldn't be surprised by Tyson's reaction, but he was; "That doesn't mean he doesn't want you guys to know about it, we all know he just likes to be private,"

"Yes Tyson, Kai is just ridiculously private, we should be _slightly_ used to it by now," Chief told him, wondering what had gotten into his friend, sure he wasn't a friend of Kai's but they were on the same team, so they should still be civil to each other.

"I know we asked you not to tell anyone, but…" Max began to say, thinking that might be the reason as to why Tyson was so upset by the news.

"That's not it Max, but how can you trust that guy?" Tyson asked and Max just looked at him, startled, unsure what he was getting at; "What do we actually know about him?"

"He's part of the team…" Chief began to say for Max.

"Yea, but that doesn't mean anything, he has said before that he doesn't want to be here, remember?" Tyson reminded them; "So what do you know about him? Who are his parents…"

"Look, we are still getting close, I don't know lots about him, but that's just what he's like, I _will_ learn about them gradually, Kai just takes his time to trust…"

"Yea, but _we_ are his team, if he doesn't trust us how can we trust him?"

Max sighed loudly and glared at him, Chief felt it might have been picked up from Kai, since it did have that Kai-like intensity to it.

"We just wanted to tell the team what was going on, that's all," Max stated and turned to leave the room.

"We are happy for you Max," Chief said, hoping that this would be resolved without any hindrance to the team.

"But it's Kai Chief!" Tyson stated and Max left the room, slamming the door shut as he went.

"What's the deal Tyson? So Max is in a relationship with Kai, maybe it'll be good for both of them,"

"Good for them both? Please, Kai hasn't changed from when we first met him Chief, he's the same selfish guy," Tyson said loudly, unaware that Max could hear him down the hallway.

_Just keep walking, just keep walking._ The blonde repeated like a mantra, going back to Kai's room, he never bothered to knock, just quietly walked in to see Kai reading his book.

"Max?" Kai dropped the book and sprung off the bed, walking towards him and pulling him into his chest; "What happened?"

Max hadn't been aware that he had tears falling from his eyes, until the buried his face into Kai's shirt; "I think I made it worse,"

"What?" Kai looked down at him, wondering what he meant.

"I told them about us, figured if Rei knew they might as well know too, to let Tyson know it wasn't a secret any more…" Max paused, wiping his cheeks; "It just annoyed him, he said I had no reason to trust you… that we knew nothing about you,"

"That's true," Kai said, agreeing with Tyson, which surprised them both, although what he had said was true, he had no reason to be trusted.

"You're part of this team, we all have to trust each other, to _rely_ on each other…" Max looked at him and the penny dropped; "I…"

Kai stepped back, holding Max's hands; "I can't,"

"Not even me?"

"I…" He looked away and Max moved to sit on the bed as Kai had released his hands from his grasp. He sighed in frustration; "It's not because of you, or anyone on the team. It's me,"

"What?"

"I can't tell people my past, my childhood…" Kai looked at Max intently; "I can't _remember_ my childhood. I can't compare things that happened in my childhood and relate it to something that happened in yours,"

"But…"

"For trust to work, to _fully_ work, you need to give out information about yourself, things that would help people relate to you," Kai said and smiled as Max was surprise; "I might be cold hearted but I do know a bit about people,"

"I never…"

"I know," He sat next to him; "Those memories might never come back, I don't know why they are gone, but it doesn't matter,"

"But trust can be built on other things," Max touched his hand and Kai looked at him, going towards a kiss.

When they broke off he nodded in agreement; "Yea, they can, but…"

"No 'buts' Kai, I'm here for you," Max said softly as he rested his head onto his shoulder, feeling rather sleepy; "I'll always be there for you,"


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Odd 2 Chapter 4

Rating: T

Summary: It's coming up to the finales of the American Tournament, the problem is rather obvious, but who will step up to the plate?

When Max woke up, he wondered where he was. Feeling an arm wrapped around his waist, he turned over to see Kai appearing to be asleep and he smiled.

"How long have you actually been awake for?"

"You know me too well," Kai said with a smirk as he removed his arm from his waist and sat up.

"I just know you are always up early," Max said and rubbed the rest of the sleep from his eyes; "Well, today's the day huh?" Although now that he felt more awake he dreaded today, the memory of Tyson's reaction, who he considered his friend, his _best _friend, still played in his head.

"Yea, we should be able to defeat them," Kai said, standing up; "But we need to remember that they have been watching us closely, they _know_ our moves,"

"They don't know _your_ moves," Max hinted, but Kai didn't go for it.

"I'm the sub, none of you will be sick," Kai stated, as they went down for breakfast, to find Rei was already there and waiting for them.

"Hey guys!" He was wide awake as he ate his breakfast; "Finals today huh?"

"Yea, I was trying to get Kai to compete," Max said and looked over at the bluenette, who just shook his head at him.

"I agree it would be an advantage for Kai to take part, but it would be weird when none of us are ill," Rei said with a shrug; "Besides, it just means we need to be more creative on our own attacks," Kai left them to get his own breakfast from the buffet, leaving them alone; "So, you were with Kai?" Rei asked quietly with a smile.

Max nodded, looking down at the table; "Yea… "

"What happened? Did Tyson say something?" He asked worried about his friend; _Is that the reason he wants Kai in the match? To replace Tyson? Or to replace himself?_

"Tyson… Tyson doesn't trust Kai,"

"I know he's not the most talkative guys on the planet," The Chinese blader admitted and Max starred at him; "But I trust him anyway,"

"Even though you know nothing about his family?" Max questioned and Rei smiled slightly.

"Max, you guy's didn't know about my family until I told you all the truth about the White Tigers. Everyone has secrets…"

"Kai said that he can't remember his childhood," Max blurted out, glancing to see that the blunette was still at the buffet; "That's why he can't relate about childhood things that we all talk about,"

"Really? Wow," Rei glanced at Kai as well; "That does explain a lot, but maybe he'll remember, and even if he doesn't, he can have new memories as of now,"

Max smiled, a hopeful smile; "You're right Rei, he might remember,"

Once the trio had finished breakfast they made their way to the training room as Kenny dragged Tyson down the stairs to the dining hall.

"What's up Chief?" Rei asked as the other two continued on their way to the training room.

"Not much, Tyson was just up half the night ranting and raving about…" Chief gestured towards Kai and Max, Rei just nodded slowly.

"Will he be able to compete?"

"I don't know, I think once he eats, he'll be back to normal," Kenny continued onto the dining hall as Rei went to catch up on the other two.

"What happened?" Max asked first, although not wanting to talk to Tyson yet, he was still worried about his friend.

"Kenny was saying that he was up half the night ranting about you guys," Rei told them honestly, they would have found out about it later anyway.

"Tch, trust Tyson," Kai said and looked at the two; "You might be getting your wish Maxie, if Tyson isn't ready for the finals today I might have to take his place,"

"Who knows what he'll be like _after_ breakfast though," Rei said and shook his head; "Could go either way really,"

"Good point, right now we need to prep up, make sure we have new attacks," Kai said as they all began training.

XXX

Kenny had been right, all Tyson needed was some food and he was back to his normal self, although he still kept his distance from Max, but he didn't mind, so long as Tyson was almost back to his usual self, he could try and fix up the problem he had after the tournament.

"You know, this is the last time we'll be heading for the stadium," Kenny mused as he looked out the window, at the insistence of Rei and Dizzy to have him stop stressing over the All Starz stats.

"Yea, but when we go back to the hotel we'll be champs!" Tyson said happily, punching his fist in the air.

"We need to make sure that we win though Tyson," Rei said and the younger teen glared at him; "Think about it, they do have the advantage over us, they've been able to watch our battles…"

"We just need to show them that a bladers spirit is stronger than any science…" Max said, but trailed off as he remembered his mum was on the team.

Kai listened to the talk carefully, noticing that Max was still confused as to where his loyalties lay; _We'll need to remedy that._

As Kenny discussed the battle plan, he heard his name be mentioned and looked to see the three bladers looking at him while Kenny continued to tap on his laptop.

He remained silent, unwilling to speak, although he knew what they wanted, he _was_ to be a replacement, but not for Tyson.

"I'm sorry, but you are too emotionally involved…" Kenny began but the blonde just nodded.

"I know that, but… But I can do this!" Max tried to argue back.

"The Chief has a point though Max, you'll be facing your mom's team, how can you _not_ get emotionally involved? We can't lose this!" Tyson said to him, trying to make the teen see sense.

Rei just looked over at Kai, his amber meeting those red eyes;

_Shouldn't you say something?_ Rei asked him.

_Not yet, Max is proving himself._ Kai stated, allowing his boyfriend to argue his case, even though Kenny wasn't willing to listen, after all data was data, who could dispute that?

As they got off the bus and made their way to the lockers the trio were still arguing, Kai and Rei trailed behind them.

"Are you sure you shouldn't…?"

Kai just looked at him and then looked at the trio ahead of them, he sighed as he went into the locker room.

Once the team were all in the room Kai glared at them all to be quiet.

"Max will battle,"

"What?"

"Really?"

"But Kai the data…" Kenny tried to argue, although Kai knew too well that the boy would easily back down, he was still intimidated by him after all.

"Data doesn't mean much, aren't we trying to prove that a blader's spirit is more than simple data?" Kai questioned him and he nodded slowly.

"Well yes but…"

"Oh come on Kai, I think you're scared!" Tyson taunted him, hoping that would make him want to replace Max in the match, they _needed_ to win this after all, to continue on to the World Tournament.

"You can taunt me all you want, I couldn't care less," Kai told him with a glare; "Max will battle, he needs to prove himself,"

Max listened in shock unable to believe that Kai was actually unwilling to take his place; "Really Kai?"

"Yea," He said simply.

"Heh, you can prove to your mom how good you are as a blader," Rei added and Max nodded at him with a smile.

"True," He turned to Kai with a smile; "Thank you,"

Kai never said anything back, which was typical of him even if he was now going out with Max, the look that he gave the other was enough; _You're welcome._

When they went out to the bey stadium, Tyson was up first, winning with surprising ease, although Kenny and Kai both knew that it was staged that way.

"That was easy, this will be a cake walk," Tyson said as he came back down to them, but Kai saw the look the All Starz gave them, one that showed they had a cunning plan.

_We need to watch ourselves in this next match._ He thought and nodded to Rei.

"That was too easy," Kenny said softly as he looked through his data; "There is no way…"

"Maybe our blader spirit _is_ stronger," Tyson suggested, though he focused on Rei; match, which brought reality crashing down with two losses.

"I'm sorry you guy's," Rei said, not understanding how he could lose so easily.

"It's up to you Max," Tyson said to the blonde who nodded, but although determined to win, he wondered if it wasn't a good idea for him to spin for this match.

_I'm not going to be able to do this. I'll just… I'm just going to let everyone down…_

"Right," Max said with false confidence and walked up to the dish, only to be defeated with ease.

"What's that about?" Tyson demanded to know as Max tried to regroup.

"Sorry guy's, my mind was just somewhere else,"

"Well try to keep it on the match! We can't afford to lose this," Tyson tried to stress, not understanding how Max was feeling, how overwhelmed and unsure he was, not knowing if he could swim through the torrent of emotions that plagued him.

"Max, don't worry." Kai said softly, before glancing at the rest of his team then continued on, since no one was going to interrupt him; "You need to have complete faith in your abilities, otherwise you might as well pack it in,"

Max blinked; _Kai really does like to be blunt._ He smiled and nodded; "Got ya," Turning back he prepared himself for the next match.

As the teams watched, with Max being able to fight off Michael and push the blade out of the dish. While his team mates cheered at the defeat, Kai watched on carefully.

_You did well Max, but the question is, can you do it again?_

The third and final match would be the one to prove who was the stronger balder and who would make it all the way to the tournament. The All Starz were re-grouping, no doubt in preparation for this final battle, the one that would be the deciding factor.

"Max is still tired from his last battle," Kai noted out loud, watching his boyfriend try to focus, to keep his energy up, but it was clear for him to see; the rest of his team looked at him in surprise.

"You're kidding," Tyson said, looking at Max and then back to Kai, but he couldn't see it.

"He's going to need all his strength for this one, looks like they are pulling out all the stops," Kenny added, worried that this might very well be it, they might be sent home packing.

"He'll do it," Rei said to them, wanting everyone to just cheer the blonde on as the match began; "Come on Max! You can take this guy!"

_I hope your right Rei…_ Max thought to himself as he watched Michael's moves; _I'm going to give it my all, even if I don't win, if I use all the power that I have then that should be enough._

"I wasn't going to use this move until the World Tournament, but I guess you _earned_ a sneak preview!" Michael said tauntingly, "Say hello to the All Starz secret weapon,"

"Don't let your guard down!" Kenny called out to him as the blades slammed together.

Kai kept his eyes on the two blades as he spoke; "Too late, he's losing control,"

They all watched as Max's blade was being slammed into the side of the dish over and over again.

"Ah, there must be a way to help Max…" Kenny began to type away furiously on the laptop.

"You're only thinking of this now? We should have been…" Tyson began to rant.

"It's called a _secret_ weapon Tyson," Rei told the other teen calmly; "We wouldn't have been able to do anything to help Max before now,"

"I'm getting nothing, the only person who could help," Kenny looked over at Kai, whose eyes hadn't left the match going on in front of him.

"Yea, Kai? What would help Max?" Rei asked the bluenette who smirked.

"I do know the solution," He paused and looked at them; "But Max has to figure it out for himself,"

"What? Why can't you just help out? He's meant to be your boyfriend you know!" Tyson exclaimed in anger, not understanding how the bluenette could just watch and _not _want to help out, to _give_ advice to the other boy who he was meant to love.

"Actually, Kai does have a point," Kenny conceded and began to tap on the keys of his laptop once more; "This is Max's battle, we should have complete faith in him,"

"Yea, in him and his abilities," Rei said with a nod and looked back to the beydish.

Kai just looked at the blonde, who was struggling, that was obvious; _Max, there is only one way that you can defeat him, one power capable of defeating him, and it's up to you to discover it. I know you have what it takes._

Max just continued to watch his beyblade getting pushed around; _Okay, so maybe I didn't have complete faith in myself. I always needed my team mates to be behind me, but I guess that can only take you so far, you need to believe in yourself and your own abilities to take you higher than before. _Those blue eyes opened wide in realisation;_ That's what Kai was meaning!_

"Hey mom! I believe I can win!" Max said with a smile, as his beyblade began to fight back, pushing Michael's blade and slamming him away.

Although the battle was intense, it was a victory for Max and the team, although Kai stayed away from the other's, since he did still have his reputation to think of.

It was when they returned to the hotel and Max was alone with him in his room that they got to talk.

"You did well Max," Kai stated as the other hugged him.

"You were the one who gave me the advice," Max said and kissed him; "I should have paid more attention to it, would have made that match a lot easier,"

"A win is a win, so long as you learned something," Kai stated and they sat down on the bed, though Max kept his arms wrapped around him.

"Now it's the World Tournament right?"

"Right," Kai said with a slight nod; "It's going to get harder…"

"Oh come on Kai, we won both Tournaments, we could win this next one too,"

"Could being the apt word there Maxie," Kai sighed and closed his eyes; "You guy's have never been this far before,"

"What is it?" Max looked at him, his voice laced with worry as he noticed that Kai kept rubbing his head.

"Nothing,"

"Too much excitement from today?" Max teased him; "Guess that's a sign of getting old huh?"

"Old?" He opened his eyes to look at him and smirked, pulling him closer; "You think _I'm _old?"

"Getting a headache over nothing?"

"It's rather easy for Tyson to give a person a headache," He quipped and Max laughed, knowing that it was true; "Best get to sleep Maxie, we'll be heading off tomorrow, bright and early,"

"Can't I stay?" He asked as Kai pulled him up and walked him to the door.

"No, because you have some packing to do. You might not be like Tyson Max, thankfully, but I know you aren't organised, it's better if you pack tonight than panic tomorrow morning,"

"Fine," He nodded in defeat and then smiled, quickly kissing Kai on the lips before heading to his own room; "Night Kai,"

"Tch, night Max," Kai said, feeling a blush rise up on his cheeks, even though no one was around, he wasn't used to someone being so open with their affection of him.

_Something I'll need to get used to, Max is open and bright… The opposite of me._ He closed the door and decided to finish off the packing before he went to bed as well.


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Odd2 Chapter 5

Rating: T

Notes: I have basically tweaked the Majestic arc to make it fit in to this story. Not so much KaixMax here.

Summary: After winning the last tournament the Bladebreakers are heading to Europe, but on their travels bumps need to occur.

The team had finally got to England by ship, although no one was sure why they couldn't just travel over by plane.

Not that Kai minded there was plenty of time to train; they didn't need to be at the Tournament for two weeks at least, this just meant they could practice new moves without too much pressure.

He was always down at the beydish early in the morning, it was the quietest time for him to train alone, although he had begun to notice another teen watching him train, but since he said nothing, Kai choose to ignore him.

"You have some skills," The purple haired boy commented with a nod, Kai noticed the accent German, but his English was very good.

"Hn," Was all he said back; "Who are you?"

"Ah, forgive me," He said with a slight smile; "I am Robert, I had heard there was a team of bladers traveling for the World Tournament, I take it you are part of the team?"

"I am," He said and noticed other people were coming down; _I need to get out of here_. Before he could leave without saying anything else to the German, he found the teen wanting to talk.

"Are bladers from Japan so rude that they don't introduce themselves?" Robert inquired.

Kai glared at him; _Just my luck_, and was about to speak when a familiar voice came over; "No, it's just him," The two teens looked over to see the blonde blader walk over to them; "Hi, I'm Max," He held his hand out for the other to shake.

"Robert," The German said with a nod and looked at the bluenette; "And he is..?"

"Oh, that's Kai," Max said with a smile; "He just doesn't like to talk too much, unless it's important,"

"I see. Well, I apologise for keeping you," Robert said to them both, carefully scrutinising Max though the younger teen never noticed and walked away.

"I think you made an impression," Kai stated but Max shook his head.

"No, I think _you_ made an impression," Max informed him; "All I did was be polite, you know, what _normal_ people do," He teased; "But he was impressed by your skills, that's why he spoke to you. He's always watching people, but he has never spoken to them," Max stated, having been down watching Tyson being challenged by the many young beybladers on the ship, noticing Robert who had never uttered a word to anyone.

"I suppose I should be flattered?" Kai said drily, not sure why he should care about some guy who complimented him on his skills.

"Well, I don't know. I mean, he could be a pretty good blader…"

"Maybe, or maybe he just knows a good blader when he sees one," He argued back.

"And now you are just trying to give yourself and ego boost," Max said with a smile and nudged Kai out of the room before anyone came over to challenge them; "But come on, breakfast time,"

"How do you know I haven't already eaten?"

"Because we've been on this boat…" Max noticed the look Kai gave him and corrected himself; "Ship for how many days now?"

"Three,"

"And you have never had breakfast before you train,"

The bluenette never disputed that fact, he _never_ ate before he trained on the ship, he got up too early for the café or the restaurant to be opened. Not that he cared; it just meant he could train for a bit longer.

"I wonder what he was up to…" Max thought out loud and noticed the look Kai gave him, the look that said; _What are you talking about?_; "Oh, hehe, Robert," He said as if that made it clear.

_As clear as muck._ Kai thought to himself; "What about him?"

"Well, don't you wonder why he's checking out all the bladers?" Max asked him; "Or why he was up early to see you blade?"

"No one knows about me being down there at that time in the morning,"

"We do," Max countered; "You're not sneaking away Kai, you may like to act mysterious, but that's a lot harder on a bo…" He realised what he had been about to say; "Ship. It's a lot harder on a ship,"

"Maybe he's just a stalker. Am surprised Tyson hasn't challenged him yet," Kai said as they went into a café and sat down at a table in the corner of the room.

"Oh he's wanting to," Max informed him; "It's taken myself and Kenny to withhold him from doing anything stupid. We don't know anything about this guy,"

Kai nodded slowly; "Yea," He paused for a moment and they ordered, since they had been coming here for the past 3 mornings they never deviated from what they had for breakfast, once the waitress left the bluenette looked at Max; "Has Kenny got any data on him?"

"Huh?"

_Sometimes, the kid is just clueless. _Kai said with a sigh; "Kenny could get some info on him, if he is a blader there would be some information about him,"

"Oh, why didn't I think of that?" Max said, annoyed at himself for not thinking of that, Kai just smiled slightly at him; "What?"

"Don't worry about it, if Kenny hasn't said anything to you about it, he probably hasn't thought of it either," Kai said and the two drifted into silence as their food and drinks were brought to them.

_Kai has a point, if Kenny could find out more about that guy; we might be able to figure out what he wants…_ Max thought to himself, not paying attention to anyone around him, completely unaware that the teen he was thinking about was glancing through the wind at them.

Kai quickly looked over, only to find that Robert kept walking; _He's up to something, but what? If he's a blader why hide that fact?_

Once the two were finished did they track down Kenny, who was looking slightly ill to say the least on the boat deck, sitting on a sun lounger.

"Hi Chief! What's wrong?" Max asked, quickly moving to sit next to his friend.

"Hi guy's, nothing's wrong…" Kenny stopped talking, taking deep breaths.

"Poor Chief is suffering from travel sickness," Dizzi informed them.

"Dizzi!" Kenny exclaimed, not believing that his bit beast ratted him out.

"Don't you have any tablets with you?" Kai asked, looking down at the boy who quickly shook his head.

"… I thought you were fine on the plane," Max said thoughtfully, thinking that he had been around Kenny for the whole time on the plane and he had never seen the boy take a pill.

"Flying is different from this though Max," Kai said and looked at the short boy again; "I've got some tablets, you might as well come to my room," He picked the boy up, who started to resist; "You can't walk, that's why you're on the lounger, besides we have something to discuss with you,"

Max picked up the laptop and followed his boyfriend to his room.

"Well this is a change, _Kai_ helping Kenny. Will wonders never cease?" Dizzi said jokingly and Max smiled.

"Who knows Dizzi,"

"I hope he's treating you right," She added and Max felt himself blush; "Is that a yes? He's being a perfect gentleman?"

"Well, yea, of course he is…" Max said, relieved when they got to Kai's room.

"That's good to hear,"

"I think so too," Kai said and looked over at the blonde and the laptop; "Because I would wonder what I did to _not_ be treating you right," He placed Kenny on his bed and moved to the bathroom, going through the medicine that he had when Max looked in.

"How many pills do you have?" He said in surprise; "Are you prepared for _everything_?"

"Yes. I'm the team captain, like it or not I need to make sure I am prepared for _somethings_," Kai stated and gestured to Kenny; "Like that. Minor, but Kenny is an important part of the team,"

"Wow," Max just looked at him, his blue eyes shining and Kai wondered what he had said to make the teen be emotional; "You just said that someone is _important!_ And in the team,"

"What's this?" Dizzi called over to them and Kai glared at his boyfriend, who knew to keep quiet.

"Just how prepared Kai is,"

"I hope you have tablets for stomach ache," Dizzi said and the bluenette smirked.

"I think Tyson deserves all the pain he gets," The bluenette handed over two pills and a glass of water to the short teen, who took them gratefully, and quickly swallowed the water.

"It will take a while for the pills to take effect," He said and brought the laptop over; "However, I have a favour to ask," The sentence didn't sit well on his tongue and Kenny looked at him in shock.

"What? The loner is _asking_ for help?" Dizzi exclaimed.

"Come on you two," Max said; "We need your help here,"

"Well, of course we'll help," Kenny said, slightly shaky still; "What was it that you need?"

"You remember that guy? The one who was watching all the bey battles?"

"Tall guy, kept to himself," Kenny nodded.

"Well he spoke to Kai this morning,"

"Mr Sunshine is getting all the luck these days," Dizzi commented while Kenny said; "Shhh, sorry Max,"

"He said his name is Robert," Kai continued on; "He's German, it's not obvious but it's there, this is probably his second language,"

"You got that Dizzi?" Kenny asked his laptop.

"Actually I have a picture of him, I can get it checked out if it's anyone important,"

"So long as it's a blader," Max said with a slight nod.

"I'm on it,"

Kenny sighed and lay down on the bed while the other two teens looked at him, one with worry and the other just glanced at him then to the laptop.

"That's him," Kai said when he spotted a picture that Dizzi had found that matched what she had taken at the bey training area, and they all gathered round to look at the picture on the screen; "That looks like an official photo"

"It is Kai, it's from a newspaper article," Dizzi said and then went on; "His name is Robert Jurgens, he's from Germany after all, his family are rich and he is indeed a blader,"

"Is he good?" Max asked.

"_Very. _He won the tournament in his country,"

"So why isn't he part of…"

"Because no one has the same strength as him, aside from that, he doesn't play well with others, if you get what I mean,"

"Sounds like someone we all know," Max glanced at Kai who looked back.

"I'm still around," He snipped at the blonde who grinned.

"I know,"

"Ehm, if I can interrupt the loved up couple," Dizzi interrupted; "Robert is strong, I don't have a lot of information about his beyblade, but it's powerful, you guy's should be careful,"

"Aw, we won two tournaments…" Max was about to point out but Kai shook his head.

"She's right, he might not be in any tournaments, but we can't let our guard down, he probably is strong, a lot stronger than those we have faced if no one could be on the same team as him," Kenny added, although still not feeling great, he felt good enough to add in his opinion of the matter.

"Exactly," Kai nodded slowly; "We should tell the other's…" As he spoke a knock was heard on his door and he stood up to see who it was, opening the door her found the Chinese blader in front of him.

"You guy's need to see this, Tyson's about to have a match…"

"It's with a guy called Robert isn't it?" Max asked and Rei nodded, the three in the room a sighed in annoyance, thinking the same thing;

_Typical Tyson._

"Let's go, we might be able to see how powerful this guy is," Kai said, moving past Rei and the other's followed him down to the bey arena to find a big crowd of people eager to watch the battle between Tyson and Robert.

"What guy?" Rei asked, not understanding what they were talking about, but he didn't want to ask as they were running down; _We have to be there for Tyson, we don't know anything about this blader_.

"The guy, Robert, he's from Germany…" Max began and Rei nodded; "Well, he's a beyblader and a tough one at that, he's so strong that no one could be on the same team as him and be part of the tournaments,"

"Really?" Rei looked at the German again, feeling worry creeping into his being; "This might be trouble for Tyson,"

"Idiot," Kai muttered, though only the shortest member of the team heard him.

"He might pull through it," Kenny said, trying to keep the faith in his friend.

"Or he might find himself facing someone a lot stronger than him," Kai pointed out, but kept his eyes on the match; "Right now, I don't think he has a chance," He stated bluntly/

"Kai!" Kenny exclaimed, shocked that the captain would say that about one of the other strongest blader's on the team, of course Rei and Max were strong, but compared to Tyson and Kai? They just weren't as powerful, but the bluenette didn't pay any attention, his focus was on Robert's beyblade, he was waiting for the moment when his bit beast would appear.

Kai had no doubt that Robert had a bit beast like the rest of his team, there was no way he could be that strong without one; he didn't wait long to see the Griffin, aptly called Griffolyon. It was bigger than any bit beast he had ever seen.

_I knew there were one's out there like this._ Kai glanced over at Tyson, who was surprised, but still determined; _We just got our wake up call._

"Dragoon is totally overwhelmed," Kenny said, no longer looking at the stats, it was obvious that what Kai had said just moments ago was right, Tyson was up against someone _a lot_ stronger than him.

_No wonder Kenny, this is something else._ Kai thought to himself, as Tyson was defeated with ease by Robert.

The German left without a word, although he looked at Tyson with distain, while the rest of the Bladebreakers went over to Tyson and checked out Robert's stats.

"I finally get to use my slow motion feature," Dizzi said as the battle was replayed; "Check out the motion of Robert's beyblade,"

Four of them watched as Dizzi showed them a close up of Robert's beyblade in action, although Tyson didn't look, still on his knees on the floor, not sure how he managed to lose so easily.

_I haven't lost that badly since… Well, since Kai, but that was before Dragoon…_ Tyson thought to himself, trying to figure it out.

"Ah, it has the fastest spinning velocity we've ever seen…" Kenny said in awe; "It generated gale force winds," He lowered the screen of his laptop to look at Tyson; "You weren't to know that he was using some kind of super bit beast,"

Rei looked at Tyson and then to Kenny; "How could this happen? By now, shouldn't we be ready for anything?"

"Well that's obvious, not all of the world's best beybladers go to the tournaments," Kenny said with a sigh; "We have some serious gaps in our knowledge base,"

"Tch, like that matters," Tyson said, although he didn't look any of them in the eye; "Robert hammered it home guy's, we're completely out of our league. If there are any other mega bit beasts out there we're doomed,"

Max looked at his defeat friend , his blue eyes wide in shock, he quickly looked at Kai, who also appeared to be taken back by what the normally upbeat teen had said; "But Tyson, you are always the _first_ one to say that we should never throw in the towel,"

"Max has a point," Kenny said, but still looked at Tyson; "There's no point in quitting over one loss,"

"Sure, that's easy for you to say, you're not the one who lost," Tyson snapped back.

"I disagree with you," Kai said and the whole team looked at him, surprised that Kai would even talk about this instead of enjoying the moment of Tyson being defeated, even Max was surprised, although he did feel a bit guilty about it, after all Kai was still the teams captain, his duty was for the team, not just his own revenge; "We should always remember this low point. Of how our team was defeated by an outsider, this will be a constant remember of how we shouldn't rest regardless of how well we have done in the past,"

Tyson looked at the team captain in surprise as he finally stood up; "That's… That's some good advice Kai,"

Kai looked at him with a smirk as Kenny spoke; "I agree, I feel a bonding moment coming on,"

They all looked at the shortest member of the team, although Kai didn't wish _anyone_ to hug him, except Max, but he knew that Kenny was trying to get them to focus on something else.

"We need to sort out our training regiment,"

"Whatever needs to be done, I'm doing it!" Tyson said, the determination back in his voice and Kai noticed that Max relaxed slightly after being so tense with worry over his friend, although it didn't take Tyson long to bounce back, the blonde still worried.

"All right, I just need to check over something's with Kai,"

"The basics that you had them all doing," Kai interrupted him, before he could continue; "The weighs, jogging and the like, they can continue with that for the rest of today,"

No one argued, the three bladers just nodded and left to get back to what they were supposed to be doing, Tyson jogging around the ship, Rei jogging on the spot and Max trying to lift weights.

"What's wrong Kenny?" Kai looked over at him, wondering what was now going on in his head.

"Is it even possible to defeat those bit beasts?" Kenny asked quietly, unsure if the others could hear him even though they were walking away; "The power Robert's one had was…"

"Everything can be defeat and overcome, maybe not right away, but in time," Kai said; "The training needs to be changed, although the basics are fine, it needs to be harder, we all need to toughen up,"

"All right, but there is only…" Kenny stopped and noticed how Kai was looking at him and blushed, realising what he was doing; "Oh, that's your job huh?"

Kai smirked once more, glad that the shortest member of the team wasn't as intimidated of him as before; _The kid is finally getting used to me._ He thought and then asked;"Do you have some ideas?"

"Well…" Kenny began as they went outside to sit down on a spare deck chair as Kenny started up Dizzi once more to explain his points of training, what would be more beneficial for them and what would probably help pull them all together as a team.

Kai just nodded slowly, allowing the information to flow through; "Good plan, starting tomorrow morning we'll get everyone up at the same time, we'll do the beyblade training first, it's quieter down there first thing, then the rest of the training can begin,"

"All right," Kenny said with a nod, typing out the rest of the notes onto the laptop.

"And will you be joining in the training Kai?" Dizzi asked, wondering if the bluenette was going to watch the rest of his team sweat it out with this training routine.

"We _all_ need to get stronger, that include me too," Kai informed her and stood up; "We should see how the rest are getting on, we've seen Tyson, so he's fine, you check on Rei," He said to Kenny who nodded.

"Ah and you can go and check on Max," Dizzi said with a slightly teasing tone.

Kai paid no mind and continued to walk on, heading towards the gym where he saw that Max, although sweating, was struggling with the weights.

_I guess no one told him how to do this._ He thought with a smirk, although he grabbed a plastic cup of water as he moved towards the blond; "You know, you might be trying to lift too many weights,"

Max looked up and relaxed; "Wasn't that the point?"

"No. You need to build up strength in your arms, if you can't even life the weight then there is no point to it," He moved to see how much Max was trying to life and bit his lip to stop himself from laughing; _I guess it must have been a blonde moment, only a weight lifter could lift this much._ He took the pin out and put it into the more manageable weights and stood up to nod at Max, who pulled his arms together and found that he could lift them.

"Oh, I can feel it now," He exclaimed.

"Just keep going," Kai said a nod and looked around, the gym was getting quieter and he moved to lift some weights of his own.

"Kai?" Max asked as the bluenette sat near him; "Is it possible to…"

"We can defeat anything that comes our way," Kai said, repeating what he had told Kenny; "Just because it's a bigger bit beast doesn't mean we can't win,"

"Yea, but… That much power was coming from…"

"Max, relax, we can win against him, and any others, we just need to train harder than before,"

With that sad the two continued to do their weights, neither noticed that the German blader was watching them on the phone.

"Ja, it's done," He paused for a moment; "Ja, they are, very hard. I think I can arrange that," Robert hung up and walked away, making sure that the rest of the Bladebreakers didn't see him coming from this direction, he didn't want them to know he was spying on them, making sure they were going to get stronger.

_But enough to defeat me? Nien, I think not. _


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Odd2 Chapter 6

Rating: T

Notes: Again not so much of KaixMax pairing in here, this is more of a focus on the friendship element between Kai and Kenny.

Summary: After Tyson's crushing defeat, the team are put on a rigorous training routine by Kai and Kenny while they are traveling, although is Robert all that he seems?

After a few days of rigorous training, Kenny and Kai agreed to change the pace of the training regime, instead of them working out, two of them would train at the arena in the early hours of the morning, focusing their energy on a perfect balance, with their beyblade spinning on a narrow ledge that Kenny managed to fix up, while the other two would continue to work out physically, then the next day it would be a change.

It was extremely hard work for Tyson, Rei and Max; since none of them were used to it, although Rei coped well, since he did do some strict straining back in China, it was _nothing_ compared to this.

_Maybe Kenny is a masochist?_ He thought to himself as he finally dragged his tired body out of his warm comfortable bed and went to have a quick shower; _I have to train with Kai this morning… Surprised he didn't pick Max._ He didn't want to say it to anyone on the team, but he wasn't sure what to make of Kai and Max being together. He looked into the mirror and sighed; turning the taps on he waited for the water to get warm before he washed his face; _It's their choice, if they want to be together then fine. It's not like they are making out in public or anything._ He knew he sounded old fashioned, he couldn't help it, it was how he was raised. In his home village no one kissed their husband or wife in public, it just wasn't done; _I doubt Kai would want to make-out with Max with us lot around anyway._ The Chinese balder could imagine how Tyson would act about it and he chuckled to himself, feeling a bit more awake than before. Of course he knew that some people that he was bisexual, given his relationship with Lee and Mariah, but what it looked like on the outside, to people who didn't really know them, it could be taken the wrong way; he just never corrected anyone, what they thought was just that, _their _thoughts; _I really can't criticise Kai and Max can I? After seeing so much of the world I really should be more open to this kind of idea…_

Brushing his teeth after his shower he got changed and quietly left his room, leaping out of his skin when he noticed that Kai was leaning against the wall across from his door, his arms crossed, just waiting for Rei to come out.

"Jeez Kai," Rei said, hoping his heart beat would calm down after that fright, he was lucky that he didn't shout out.

"Morning," Was all the bluenette said, giving him a nod and pushed himself off the wall, unfazed by the fact that he gave Rei such a fright; "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Rei said, Drigger safely in his pocket and they walked down to the arena; "Are you actually used to this level of training?" He needed to fill in the silence; sure he had been around Kai alone before, but never for an extended period of time, never without the other three members of the team making an appearance at some stage.

"Of course," Kai said simply, as if it was obvious.

Rei didn't think so, in fact he thought it was odd that someone would put so much physical effort, to him it wasn't fun, to Tyson and Max it was torture.

"_Hey Max, can't you tell your boyfriend to ease off?"_ Tyson had asked yesterday as the two grabbed some water before continuing their jogging.

"_He won't listen to me on this,"_ Max had replied, although he told Rei later that he had never spoken to Kai about the new training routine, figuring they would all get used to it.

"_Besides, Kai had been part of these competitions for longer, he knows these things,"_ Was what he had said and Rei was inclined to agree. Kai had more experience about this than anyone else, his training routine would help them get stronger as bladers and if Kenny agreed without changing anything then it must be a good idea.

But he was now changing his mind wasn't this meant to be fun? Even if it was a sport, if the fun factor is gone what do you have left?

"Kai, why do you train so hard?" Rei asked him, although he already knew the answer, his brain was still tired and half asleep.

The bluenette smirked; "To be the best,"

"Figures. But why so hard? I mean…"

"You saw how Robert defeated Tyson, it was like swatting away a fly," Kai began, pointing out the obvious; "None of us would stand a chance against him if we had to battle once more, so the training might be hard, it's difficult, but it _has_ a purpose,"

Rei nodded slowly, noticing that it sounded like Kai had already used that explanation before; "Has Max already asked you about why…?"

"Yes. My answer is the same," Kai assured him; "You are both part of this team, and I'm not going to give one person more information than the other,"

Rei stopped walking, surprised that Kai had figured it out so easily; _I didn't think anyone could tell!_ He had doubts about the relationship, with it being _in_ the team he thought it would mean that Kai would prefer Max and tell him certain things that the other's would never hear about.

"All of you are equals in this, we all have to grow to become stronger," As he said this they walked into the training area, everything was set up already and Rei sighed once more.

"How long have you been up?"

"An hour, but Kenny wants to check to see if there is any improvement," Kai gestured towards the short boy, who Rei missed while he was looking around the room.

"Oh, sorry Chief," He gave a slight wave.

"Good morning Rei, hope you don't mind, but I wanted to see how much a difference the new training routine is," Kenny said as he started up the laptop.

"But Chief, it's only been a few days," Rei said in confusion and Kenny looked at Kai who nodded at him; _It's weird seeing Kai act rather… Friendly towards Kenny. They might almost be taken for friends._

"We know that Rei, but the improvement will be obvious, maybe not to you, but with Dizzi here we'll be able to see what is working for you and what could be improved," He explained as he started up the programme.

"So does Kai have to do it like this too?" Rei asked as the bluenette moved to do his own training.

"Well we've already checked out Kai's performance before you came down," Kenny admitted and noticed that the Chinese blader looked a bit put out; "We figured it would be easier if you all did it separately than together,"

"It's all right," Rei said, noticing that Kenny seemed to be trying to ease him, but was getting rather worked up himself.

_Probably due to having to do this with Tyson tomorrow. _He guessed.

XXX

Once it was over and Kenny gave him some pointers on what to focus on, he went back up to his room as Kenny conferred with Kai about changing his training.

"He's responding well," Kenny said as he showed him Drigger's movement; "There are some flaws…"

"Every beyblade had flaws," Kai commented, carefully watching the screen; "Considering the type of beyblade Rei has, these flaws wouldn't be able to be fixed, it just means he needs to be aware of them,"

"Good point," Kenny began typing away on the laptop.

"Who will it be for tomorrow then?" Dizzi finally asked; "Maybe you should just make it Tyson to get it out of the way,"

"I think Tyson still needs to improve more," Kenny said thoughtfully, continuing to type.

"That's true, but the sooner we know what Tyson's failing is, the better we can sort it out," Kai added, agreeing with the laptop.

"He won't listen…"

"I'll make him listen. Everyone on the team is doing this, he has to pull his own weight and not just trust that luck will be on his side," Kai stated and stood up; "We're done here, let's just go and get some breakfast, you can finish off the notes for Rei later,"

Kenny nodded and saved his work as Kai walked away.

"Aw, that's sweet, you have a new friend," Dizzi said teasingly.

"Huh? Kai is the…"

"Team captain? He never paid you this much attention before,"

"Yes, but I'm part of the team too, maybe not beybattling but still…" He began to explain, knowing that it was rather unusual for Kai to even bother helping him with this sort of thing, but it was all for the greater good, so why did Dizzi have to bug him about it?

"Relax Chief, I'm only teasing. It's good to see that being with Max has made Kai open up a little bit more,"

"Huh?" Kenny stopped and thought it over, Dizzi had a point, Kai would never have worked alongside him if he wasn't with Max, he would have kept to himself and done his own thing, as he normally does; "I guess you're right, but it's a good thing, it also means I get more knowledge, since Kai had been beyblading competitively for years," He closed his laptop and walked out of the training area, noticing that Kai had put everything away while he had been speaking to Rei.

"I hope the training is going well," A familiar voice said, one with an accent and Kenny turned to see Robert standing in the doorway.

"Oh, er… Hello," Kenny said nervously, hoping the older teen would go away, he wasn't a blader, he just fixed up beyblades.

"I just wanted to make sure that team of yours was training properly," Robert looked around the room with a raised eyebrow; "Alas it appears not,"

"Maybe you just like to sleep in,"

The two turned towards the door and see Kai standing there, his mask firmly in place, his crimson eyes carefully watching Robert; "Hello again Robert,"

"This isn't early," Robert countered and Kenny smiled, feeling safer now that someone on his team was around.

"With Kai, this is middle of the day," The short boy stated and Robert was about to say something else, the look in his eyes evidently told the two that he didn't believe anyone would get up that early to train.

"Come on Kenny, the others are waiting for you," Kai said and the boy walked by them, quickly heading up the stairs to the dining hall; "Our team is training hard, just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not true,"

"That has to be the most you've said while I've been around,"

Instead of answering him, Kai just turned and left him alone in the arena, where other beybladers were slowing coming in.

"Interesting, _very_ interesting," Robert walked away, deciding to give someone a call.

"Thanks Kai," Kenny said at the top of the stairs as Kai walked up.

"Hn," Kai was silent and then looked at the shorter boy, remembering what Max had said to him.

"_Kai, Kenny would love you to help him with training!"_

"_Why should I help him?"_

"_Because you are both on the same team, I bet you could learn from each other,"_ Max rested his head on his shoulder; _"Give the Chief a chance, he's not that bad,"_

"_I know but…"_

"_No, no buts, you'll work with him, you'll come up with a brilliant training idea!"_ Max had declared before they were due to leave America, sitting in his room, their bags were already downstairs, but Max thought he might have forgotten something.

_He was right; myself and Kenny do work well together with this._ Kai thought and decided to speak; "Don't worry about Robert,"

"Huh?"

"Don't worry about Robert, he knows that you don't blade. He won't challenge you, he's just after information," Kai informed him as they made their way to a spare table, the rest of the team had either eaten or were still asleep, the two had decided that Tyson and Max could lie in if they wanted to, but the training was going to get more intense the longer they were on the ship, they needed all their energy.

"But what…"

"I don't know, but something's not right," Kai said and he looked at the menu as he sat down, with Kenny carefully putting his laptop onto a spare seat.

_Kai really isn't too bad a guy I guess._ Kenny thought to himself.

XXX

Heading back to his room Kai saw Max walking towards him and wondered what was wrong.

"We'll be in London in two days!" He said cheerfully.

"What?"

"We're docking in London, England," Max said to clarify, too excited to tell that it sounded like he was patronising his boyfriend.

"I know where London is Maxie," Kai nearly growled out; "But that doesn't mean we're going to relax the training,"

"All right, but how about we go sightseeing though? After morning training?" Max pleaded with him, his blue eyes going wide, hoping that this would work.

"Fine, but extra training that night," Kai told him and Max hugged him.

"You got it, thanks Kai,"

"What did you want to see?" He asked as Max followed him to his room.

"_Everything!_"

"That's a lot in a day," Kai commented and Max just looked at him, not understanding. _The kid is American, just because he lived in Japan doesn't mean he understand history._

"What I mean is, London has a long history associated with it, you need to know what you want to see," Kai tried and then decided that he needed to explain further; "You have the palace, the Tower, the museums, you have the Shakespeare…"

"Oh I see," Max nodded; "I wasn't thinking about that,"

Kia felt his heart drop; _I think this could be a Tyson moment._ When he realised what it could be that Max was about to suggest; "Leister Square?"

"Well yea," Max nodded slowly.

_I won't need to leave the ship then._ He thought to himself; "You and Tyson can go ahead and check it out,"

"Huh? Don't you want to come along too Kai?"

"Nah, it's not my thing," He said honestly, not seeing the need to go to a place that had no real history, maybe he would sound like a snob if he said that out loud, but actors and actress' placing their hands in cement to gain some recognition just didn't go well with him.

"Then what would you like to see? It'll be a whole day out!"

_What would I like to see?_ Kai thought for a moment, not noticing that Max looked anxious as he didn't utter a word; "I guess I would want to see the wax museum," He shrugged.

"Really? Why?" The blonde asked, he had heard of the place, they had one in America, but he heard it was full of celeberties, which didn't seem like something Kai would want to see.

"History," Kai smirked at him and then explained; "Madame Tussaud started her work before the French Revolution…"

"That's from the 'Let them eat cake' quote came from," Max interrupted and Kai just nodded patiently.

"Yea, so she left France after that," Kai didn't want to go into detail about her leaving because the revolutionaries had put her into prison, thinking she was a royalist; "There is a lot more history in there than you think, I'm avoiding all the celebrities and going to the historic parts, you might want to just hang out with Tyson,"

"But…"

"Max, we have time for each other anyway, what's one day?"

"I guess, but are you sure…"

"It's fine, I've done it often enough…" Max interrupted him again, but it was a surprise to feel those soft lips on his own, he didn't expect it as he opened the door to his room with Max closing it behind himself and kissing him.

_One day of no training, one day to myself._ Kai thought as he wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.

XXX

The day off that everyone got went well, everyone did their own thing, they did have to force Kenny off the ship and Rei confiscated his laptop to make sure he was actually going to have fun.

"But… But everything I do on there _is_ fun!" He had protested.

"You need to get away from the computer screen Chief and look around you," Rei had said with a soft smile; "I promise I will take care of it,"

"Rei, I don't mean to sound rude, but you don't know very much about laptops…" Before Kenny could unleash a full rant about Rei not being able to take care of the laptop, Kai took it from the Chinese blader with a nod.

"I'll take care of it, Rei you can keep an eye on those two," He gestured to Max and Tyson.

"Got it," Rei said with a nod, those amber eyes added; _Thanks._

Not much happened, Kenny followed Kai like a lost puppy while Rei tried to keep Tyson and Max out of trouble; although they all still had a good time.

Until they got back to the dock and found their ship had gone, leading to Kenny hyperventilating and Rei soothing him.

"Now what?" Tyson looked at Kai.

"We'll need to find the BBA building, we can phone Mr Dickinson from there and see what will happen," Kai said and walked away, the others followed.

"Do you know where…" Max trailed off when he spotted the building; "Oh,"

The tall building had the BBA logo around it and four of them just looked at it as Kai walked through the automatic doors.

"Why didn't we see it before?" Tyson wondered as they trailed after their captain.

"Kai's always been more observant," Rei commented.

"That's saying something coming from you Rei," Max stated and Rei looked at him, unsure if it was a compliment or not; "You always notice things that we miss,"

"I just tell you, Kai likes for you to figure it out on your own,"

"Tch, he just doesn't like sharing," Tyson declared as Kai walked towards them, those eyes glared at him before he looked at the rest.

"All right, we're staying here tonight, but we're getting the train to Paris first thing in the morning, from there we'll head to Russia,"

"From London to Paris and Paris onto Russia," Max repeated.

"Not exactly," Kai admitted and Tyson looked at the others; _Didn't I tell you? _Look on his face, which the bluenette ignored; "We're staying in Paris overnight, the train is fully booked; it won't matter too much, since we'll be early anyway,"

"Better to be there and train and get over the jetlag though," Kenny protested and Kai just nodded.

"We don't have a choice, either way we'll get over the jetlag sooner if we are staying in a country that has a similar time zone," He pointed out and Kenny remained silent.

"Well not much for us to do but to go in and sleep," Rei said as the sun was beginning to set over London.

"Yea, we'll get our dinner here as well, but aside from that, we should sleep, it's the first train out tomorrow morning," Kai said as they moved to the side building where many blader's stay for tournaments in the city or just passing through like they were.

They did the same room share as before, Kai was on his own, with Rei sharing with Tyson and Kenny with Max, all went to bed right after dinner, although that did mean they slept right away.

"Kenny, did you know that Kai knows a lot about history?" Max asked the boy who looked over at his blonde haired friend with a smile.

"Well even he has to have a hobby outside of beyblading Max," Kenny pointed out; "Why?"

"Nothing, I just… didn't know,"

"You two haven't been together for that long, and we all know that Kai is rather private, you won't learn everything about him so soon," _And I can't believe I am giving out advice on a relationship!_

"I guess…"

"Max, go talk to him, you know he appreciates it when you say how you feel," Kenny said and Max just looked at him in question; "It's not what you think!" He protested quickly before explaining; "What I mean it, it's obvious that you are helping him, the fact he's working with me for one, normally I am alone in this; another is his advice, he's giving it out more readily rather than keeping to himself,"

"But there are times when you need to learn it on your own though," Max pointed out and Kenny nodded.

"Yes, that won't change, but what I mean is, he's giving it out when you guys are training with us,"

"So, slowly…"

"It's like that kid's story, the hare and the tortoise, you need to go slowly,"

"I just… I don't see how we can be so different," He confessed and lay on his bed, all these thoughts going around his head, wondering how they could be together when they were indeed polar opposites.

"Oh Max, we don't know anything about Kai…"

"He has a rich grampa," Max stated and Kenny just looked at him in surprise, the blonde looked at his friend and his blue eyes widened in realisation; "You didn't know?"

"No, Kai never talks about his family,"

"Oh, oh… I didn't…"

"Did Kai ever tell you not to tell us?" Kenny asked and Max shook his head; "Then it's not a big secret. Max, why don't you go and see Kai now? You need to talk to him and I think it would be more helpful if you question him rather than me,"

Nodding Max left their room, closing the door behind him and made his way towards Kai's room, knocking the door and waiting for someone to answer.


	7. Chapter 7

Title: Odd2 Chapter 7

Rating: T

Summary: Max begins to wonder about his relationship with Kai, and the team need to get to Paris.

Kai opened the door, knowing that only a few people would bother to knock on his door at this time of night; he was only wearing his trousers as his soaking hair dripped onto his shoulders while he continued to rub a towel over it.

Blue eyes widened in surprise, he had never seen Kai without his top on before, even though they had shared a room together in the Asian tournament, Kai was always up so early that no one had seen him change. The bluenette's body was toned, not overly so though, but Max also noticed some faded scars on his back and sides, they looked old but he couldn't figure out how they came to be there.

"Max?" Kai said sharply and gave him a look as the blonde came into his room and closed the door, letting him return to towel drying his hair.

"Sorry," He blushed and looked around the room; it was similar to what he and Kenny had as it was only a single rather than a twin.

"What's wrong?"

"Well…" Max paused for the moment, trying to figure out what he could say; "Why are you so interested in history?" _Smooth Max, he'll probably reply in the same way as Kenny did; it's a hobby._

Kai stopped towel drying his hair and looked at him; "Because you can learn from the past,"

"Huh?"

Kai moved to sit next to Max on his bed; "You can learn about things from the past, mistakes that were done, victories, battles. The past can help shape the future,"

"But, it's not just history alone that can help shape the future, people…"

"I know that Maxie," Kai said and looked at him; "Why are you actually here? It's not just about my enjoyment of history that's bothering you,"

"I…" He paused for a moment; "I just want to know more about you Kai," He said honestly and looked at his hands; "I guess Tyson is right, we know _nothing_ about you. And I know you like to be private and just don't open up to anyone but…"

"I told you about my grandfather,"

"Yea, I kinda told Kenny about him. I didn't know the others weren't aware of him!" Max pleaded in his defence before Kai could scold him.

To his surprise the other just smiled, he seemed so relaxed when the other's weren't around, it was something that Max could enjoy, that Kai was at ease in his presence more than anyone else, but even with that knowledge it didn't sooth the fact that he felt like Kai was so far away from him.

"Telling Kenny is fine, I know he won't tell the other's," Kai said and looked around the room, taking a deep breath he admitted something that he knew Max wanted to hear; "I know I haven't opened up to you Max, I just can't do it,"

"I know," Max nodded slowly, he understood, what Kenny had said was right, Kai had been alone for so long, to get him to open up so quickly was asking far too much. He could wait; he was patient, but… He just wanted to have something from Kai, some kind of information that would let him know that they were on the right track.

"Max, I would tell you anything if I was able to," He began; "But I can't, not just out of lack of interacting with people I can call friends, but… I've been part of this sport from a young age, it has _never_ been a hobby to me, I have never grown into it, it's my life, and I distance myself from people and focus only on this because…" Kai touched his forehead feeling a pulsating throb at the front of his head.

"Kai?"

"I'm just tired, it's been a long day," The bluenette confessed and looked at him; "We need to be up early to get to France and chances are we'll need to try and wake Tyson up,"

Max grinned; "Oh that will be fun!" He never pushed on the topic that Kai had just moved away from, if he was feeling tired there was a chance he would be irritable and he didn't want that.

"I still think a fire-hose would work," Kai stated his original idea, which he came up with back when they were competing in the Asian Tournament.

Standing up Max moved towards the door, giggling; "I know you do, but I bet the hotel would rather we went about a different route,"

Following Max to the door Kai leaned over and kissed him softly; "I promise I will tell you some things later," He murmured quietly Max just nodded before going back to his room, and seeing that Kenny had already fallen asleep he made his way to bed too.

Kai just looked at his door, wondering where the pain had come from, wondering why the pain appeared when he thought of his past.

XXX

Kai had been right when he had said they would struggle to get Tyson up, they just dragged him out of the room and then out of the hotel to the taxi that was waiting for them.

"Wake up Tyson," Kai said harshly; "Or you'll miss out on the free food,"

Tyson jumped up looking around himself wildly then glared at Kai who just smirked back and went into the taxi.

"That was a mean joke," He complained to the others.

"At least it got him up," Rei muttered to Kenny and Max as the newly awake teen got into the taxi too.

"Yea, normally it takes an age to get him wide awake," Kenny said with a nod and they all piled into the taxi.

"So, we're heading to Paris?"

"Yup, on the EuroStar," Kenny stated with a smile; "No more ships for us, thankfully,"

"The ship wasn't _that_ bad Kenny," Max said with a smile, his blue eyes gesturing to Kai and Kenny smiled slightly.

"Well yes, we did get a lot more training done than we would have if we had all just gone home," Kenny admitted, noticing that Kai was looking out of the window, watching the scenery go by.

_But is he just watching the scenery? Kai is a lot more complex than I think any of us give him credit for, all those names Tyson calls him, Sourpuss and the rest, don't really touch the heart of Kai. Granted many people would say Kai doesn't have a heart, but since he is going out with Max, that can't be true, Max is the most sensitive of us, he can tell if something is wrong a lot faster than even Rei can. I think Kai is in deep thought about something; he's not the type to just let his mind wander away so easily._ Kenny moved out of his thoughts of the bluenette and listened into the rest of the conversation Max and Rei were having, with Tyson falling back to sleep and the taxi driver warning them about Tyson drooling on his seats.

With the trio trying to wake Tyson up before they get to their destination, but it was a wasted effort, although Tyson didn't drool, he was still half asleep.

Kai shook his head at their efforts, though no one noticed aside from the taxi driver who smirked a bit. There was something about his eyes that made the bluenette wonders if he had seen him before, but given that he was rather anti-social he doubted it.

"Here you are boys," The taxi driver said not getting out as the boy's piled out and Rei paid for the travel.

As the taxi sped off they walked into the train station to collect their tickets and got on the train to Paris. While they were walking Kenny wittered on about certain things about the EuroStar that no one actually cared about, Rei though listened with to the young boy, not wanting to seem rude and thinking it was good to hear him talk about something other than beyblades.

Once they had settled into their seats Tyson fell asleep again and Kenny got his laptop out;

"Once we get to Paris we can train some more,"

"Aw… No more training…" Tyson mumbled in his sleep, though Kenny paid no attention to him.

"We've had a day off, and we've lost time today as well, so once we find our hotel and eat we'll go back to our usual training," He looked at Kai who nodded in agreement and then at the other two.

"Sure thing Chief,"

"Yea,"

"Since we're there overnight anyway, it doesn't matter when we start training, so long as we continue to do so before the World Championships," Kai stated, closing his eyes; "If you want to tour around Paris though you can, but training comes first,"

"Good point, I mean how likely is it for any of us to see such a city like Paris again?" Kenny said and Kai repressed a smirk; "I have a training idea ready, it's a bit different to what we did on the ship, but we need to shake up the training routine more now,"

"And considering we aren't on the ship anymore," Max added.

"Yes, there's that, but it's a blessing in disguise really," Kenny pointed out, although he had been reluctant to admit it himself; "If we stayed on the ship we would have kept doing what we were doing rather than changing the training routine, or if we did change it might have been too late, this way we can start it back up again, something totally different,"

"You and Kai will need to put your heads together," Rei remarked and Kenny nodded slowly, unsure of the suggestion, unsure if Kai was still willing to work with him on this.

"Exactly, tonight we will train and then do the same first thing tomorrow morning," Kai looked at them and nodded to Kenny; "You can be tourists when we arrive in Paris, but once we are all back at the hotel we train,"

Rei and Max both knew that the new training routine would be ten times more difficult than the last, since they didn't have a training room anymore and Kai would be more in control of this type of training given his time with the BladeSharks.

Kenny began to type frantically away on his laptop, Rei closed his eyes to take a nap and Max just looked at Kai.

"What's wrong?" The blunette asked softly, Kenny didn't look up from his work and Rei had already drifted off to sleep. Tyson was already back in a deep sleep as he had been that morning.

"Nothing, I just wanted to know if you were all right, you know after the headache last night," Max said and Kai was taken back, not expecting him to ask after his health.

"I'm fine Maxie, just need to sleep is all," Kai told him, trying to shrug it off.

The blonde could see through his lie, although no one else could.

_Why is he lying? What doesn't he want me to know about? It can't be that bad right?_ Max wondered and worried over the reason Kai would lie, knowing that Kai would have to tell him himself, when the time was right, when he was ready to be more open.

Not that Kai didn't already know that Max didn't believe his lie; _He's perceptive, too perceptive._ Kai glanced at him before resuming to look straight ahead; _Every time I think of the past this pain shots up and just gets worse the more I try to think, how can I explain that to him?_

Kenny had heard every word, but choose not to comment, it wasn't for him to butt his nose into their problems, and he also thought that they would be able to be more open, or at least Kai would be able to be more open as time passed.

_Max might understand that he needs to go slow with Kai, I don't know if he really knows the true extent to Kai being damaged._ Kenny thought as he continued to type away new training plans, knowing that he would need to show Kai at some point to get his approval; _Although is Kai really damaged? Or is he just…_

"Kai we have something for you to look at," Dizzi interrupted his thoughts and Kenny jumped slightly; "Sorry Chief, but I figured you would want Kai to check the plans,"

"Yea, sorry," Kenny nodded and turned his laptop over to Kai, who quickly read over all the data and plans he and Dizzi came up with.

"Good, we'll keep this for a few days, once they get used to it…"

"You think they can get used to that in a few _days_?" Dizzi commented and Kai smirked.

"Yes, the training on the ship was a starter, they got used to that, and they can get used to this. We won't let up," Kai told them both and Kenny nodded.

"All right, but you can deal with Tyson," Dizzi stated and the two teens looked at the sleeping boy.

"No problems," Kai said and turned the laptop back to Kenny; "Good job,"

Kenny flushed under the praise and Max bit his lip to stop him from giggling.

"Th… Thanks," He then lowered his head and began typing out other things, more on everyone's beyblade data than for training.

"That was a nice thing you did," Max whispered into his ear.

"No, it's the truth," Kai commented back quietly; "I don't praise those who don't deserve it,"

Max smiled; "I know," He noticed Kai looking at the two sleeping teens and poked him; "I heard that there was a café on here, we might as well get some food,"

Kai looked at him for a moment then nodded; they both looked over at Kenny.

"Hey Chief, do you want to come with us?" Max asked but the boy shook his head.

"I'm okay thanks,"

"What about we bring you some food?"

"Get some coffee, the Chief has been up since the crack of dawn worrying about this train journey," Dizzi announced at Max smiled while Kenny began to berate his laptop.

"We'll get you some coffee," Kai said and began to walk away.

"Huh?" Kenny stopped and looked at where the other teen had gone; "But…" 

"Don't worry, I know what you like," Max said and walked quickly to follow Kai.

"All right, thanks," Kenny said and then continued on with his work.

XXX

Once they arrived in Paris, Tyson was wide awake and ready to explore the city, although Rei held him back before he ran off to look around.

"We need to go to our hotel first," Kenny tried to reason with the boy, who turned and nodded.

"I know, but when are we ever going to see this place again?"

"You'll be able to act like a tourist _after_ we get to the hotel," Kai said sternly and walked away, the rest of the BladeBreakers followed, no one knowing how he knew where he was going, until they came upon another taxi rank.

_Guess this makes sense. _Rei thought to himself as they once again got into the taxi which took them to their hotel.

It was when they got out of the taxi that Kenny noticed that Kai was conversing with the taxi driver; _Well, maybe he's not having a conversation with him, but… He can speak French?_ Kenny looked at Kai in awe as he walked over to him.

The bluenette just raised an eyebrow in question, wondering what was wrong with the shorter teen; "What's with the staring?"

"I had no idea you could speak French!" He exclaimed quietly, although there was no need, Tyson was hyped up and was getting the other's excited about exploring the city as well.

"I'm not fluent," He stated, not sure how to take Kenny's reaction.

"But you know the basics, which is more than the rest of us,"

"Rei know some," Kai nodded towards the Chinese blader, who was ignorant that they were talking about him.

"Really?" Kenny said in surprise and then looked at Kai; "How do you know?"

"He told me, his Uncle works in a restaurant around here," Kai shrugged and walked into the hotel, speaking to the receptionist, this time in English much to Kenny's disappointment.

"Hey Chief," Tyson called the shorter boy over and he walked up to the three older teens; "We're going to look around, you wanna come?"

"I…" Kenny knew he should hang around his best friends, but in truth he knew they would goof around and really all he wanted to do was go and look at the museums, to _learn _about this great city and all its highs and lows.

"I think Kenny would rather go to the Louvre," Kai said as he walked towards them, the keys in hand.

"The wha…?" Tyson asked confused and Max laughed at his friend's clueless-ness.

"It's one of the most famous museums in the world!"

"Tch, not that famous if _I_ haven't heard of it,"

"Possibly because your brain doesn't regard it as interesting," Kenny teased as Tyson just made a face.

"Well it would be fair if we all got to do what we wanted; we've only got a few hours huh?" Rei looked at the team captain who nodded; "So let's go, I wanted to look around at some of the parks,"

Max looked over to his boyfriend who just nodded at him; _Go with them, you want to._

With a smile the blonde walked away from Kenny and Kai who moved to go in the other direction.

"Kai, wouldn't you rather Max was here?" He felt nervous asking such a question, after all it wasn't any of his business, but for the past two days the two seemed to be distant, although he had no idea what had happened last night, he fell asleep before Max got back and this morning… Well this morning they were busy.

"There a problem with it just being you and I Kenny?" Kai asked, but when Kenny looked at him, he could see a hint, a _hint_ of teasing in those red orbs.

"No, no!" Kenny rushed in, although the teasing was evident, it wasn't something he was used to; "I just… Max is your boyfriend, surely you two should be…"

"We don't need to be attached to the hip," Kai stated, amused at how flustered the boy got when he lowered his guard around him, it was nothing like the reaction he got from Max, who was quiet and pleased, but he didn't mind this reaction, Kenny was nervous around him, although not as much as he was before; "Besides we both want to see the same thing,"

"Wait, you want to see the Louvre as well?"

"I _like_ museums," Kai informed him with a shrug; "It's a… Hobby,"

Kenny just looked at him as he walked off; _I have never heard him use that word about himself before. Is he really opening up around us?_

Quickly he ran to catch up with the blunette, feeling rather excited that they were going to one of the most famous museums in the world!


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Odd2 Chapter 8

Rating: T

Summary: The Bladebreakers are going to Italy and then Germany, some will win and other's will lose, and some will get sick.

The BladeBreakers spent the day touring around Paris, Rei, Tyson and Max walked around the city, looking around the parks, the shops and cafés, while Kenny trailed after Kai who went from museum to museum, the shorter boy was fascinated with everything he was seeing and found himself enjoying the quiet teen's presence.

They met up with the other three at the local park near the hotel, only to find that Tyson was in the middle of a beybattle.

"What happened?" Kenny asked Max and Rei as they ran up to them, although Kenny ran while Kai just walked over, his garnet eyes looking over the battle happening in front of him.

_Tyson's skills have gotten better, but it's not enough._ He thought to himself as Kenny set up the laptop to record the rest of the match.

"Nothing, just were talking to Oliver," Rei gestured towards the green haired teen on the other side of the beydish; "And when Tyson learned he was a beyblader… Well, you know what Tyson's like,"

"I wish one of you had tried to stop him," Kenny said, though he knew full well there was nothing they could have done or said to have stopped the boy, he quickly looked over the stats and then over to Oliver's beyblade; "This isn't good,"

Kai remained silent, while the others cheered Tyson on, in the end the match resulted in a draw, which meant Tyson didn't need to worry, and he didn't have the burden of losing on his shoulders.

"I guess all that training paid off Chief," Tyson said proudly as he picked up Dragoon and looked at his teammates.

"We all still need to continue training, there is no reason from us to slack off just because your match ended in a draw," Kai stated and Tyson stuck his tongue out at the teen.

"Oh come on Kai, we all agreed to do the training tonight didn't we?"

"So we should head back to the hotel," Kenny said carefully watching Oliver who smiled at them.

"That was a good match Tyson," Oliver said, and Kenny noticed the accent.

_I guess that explains a lot._ He thought to himself.

"But I have a friend in Italy who would probably be a good one for you to battle," Oliver said and Tyson perked up at this while the rest of his team knew it was going to end badly.

"Yea?"

"Tyson, we have to get to…" Rei tried to remind the other who shrugged him off.

"Oh come on guy's, we've got time to kill, besides beybattling _is_ kinda like training," Tyson tried to argue.

Kenny just sighed; "Only Tyson would come up with _that_ argument,"

"So…?" Max turned to Kai who just sighed.

"Even if I said no, he'd still go ahead with it anyway,"

"All right!" Tyson cheered and looked at Oliver who nodded.

"I can arrange it for you guy's, just get your tickets," He waved good bye to them, after giving Rei his number so they could call him when they arrived.

"This is going to be…" Tyson began but was interrupted by Kenny.

"Training, now,"

"But…"

"No, you may have a match on tomorrow, but myself and Kai want to make sure you don't lose as badly as you did with Robert," Kenny said firmly.

"Geez, I think the time you are spending around Kai is rubbing off," Tyson grumbled while Max laughed.

"It's good that the two are bonding," Rei pointed out.

"Yea, _bonding_ as in forcing me to do things I don't want to,"

"Someone has to, luck doesn't always come through you know," Max said as they headed towards the hotel, with Tyson just rolling his eyes.

XXX

Kai had book the tickets for Italy; they would stay there for two nights instead of just one, letting them rest from the journey and train harder, regardless of the outcome of Tyson's battle.

Kenny still wasn't thrilled at the prospect of _more_ travelling, although he never voiced it to anyone Rei noticed it.

"You okay?" The Chinese blader asked him as they went to look for Oliver, after they had been to a hotel and booked themselves in.

"I just…" Kenny shook his head; "I'm fine, it's just frustrating that we keep diverting off course, I just want to be in Russia and have you guy's training for the World championships,"

"Maybe it will be a good thing, like Tyson said he's going against people he never fought before…"

"But he keeps losing, and he doesn't have the power to defeat them," Kenny argued and Rei nodded slowly trying to figure out what he could say to calm the shorter boy down.

"But that's where you come in Kenny," Another voice entered the conversation and the two looked over to the bluenette; "You're recording all the matches, right now these aren't official so it's fine, it's probably the breath of fresh air that Tyson needs, it'll get him focused,"

"I guess your right Kai, it's just…"

"I know Kenny, but a guy like Tyson doesn't really do conventional," Kai said and Rei could have sworn the captain made a joke.

Kenny smiled though and nodded, his frustration apparently gone and Rei was surprised at that as well.

_Its Kai, I know the Chief has spent a bit of time around him, but this is a bit strange._ Rei thought to himself.

Most of the day had been spent with Tyson badgering Enrique to a beybattle, although Oliver _had_ called, the Italian hadn't really taken much notice.

"So this was a bad idea," Max said softly as Enrique once again brushed Tyson off; "Maybe we should go back to the hotel and train?"

Tyson ignored him and proceeded to annoy Enrique, whose patience had worn thin and finally agreed to battle him, the next day.

"All right!" Tyson cheered as they walked back to the hotel.

"That is a whole day of training wasted," Kai said as he finally settled in his room for the night; "I get he wants to battle, but seriously…" He lay down on his bed with a sigh and Max just looked at him with understanding.

"I know, but he's got what he wanted; besides we're going to train now right?"

"Something like that," Kai closed his eyes; "Kenny has come up with a new training routine, everyone is going to do it on their own first,"

"I thought you had to be there too," Max said and sat on the bed, wondering if something had changed or if they decided that Kenny should do this part of the training alone.

"It's Kenny's idea," Kai stated, thinking that would be enough of an explanation but when he opened his eyes to look at Max, only to see his blue one's looking confused; "As I said, Kenny came up with the idea, I had no input to it, so he can deal with the training,"

"Oh, I thought you two were working well together," Max said and Kai laughed; "What? I did!" The blonde said defensively.

"We are Maxie, we're… Friends," He nearly spat out the word, it felt so foreign and strange to say; "But like I said this idea is all Kenny's, I don't want to take it away from him, besides if he needs help he knows where I am,"

"That's good,"

"Anyway, we never talked yesterday," Kai said and smirked; "How was your tour of Paris?"

"Aside from Tyson challenging _every _beyblader in sight? It was good," Max smiled back at him, but the smile faded when he remembered something; "Although Tyson did say…"

"What?" Kai looked at him intensely, wondering what that idiot had said to upset Max.

"He said it was odd that we were dating when you preferred to hang out with the Chief," Max looked to the corner of the hotel room, where the TV was situated.

"Tch," Sitting up he pulled his boyfriend onto the bed and had him lying next to him; "Kenny and I just have other things in common. I don't get jealous over you hanging out with Tyson and Rei,"

"I know, but…"

"You would rather be around them, having fun than walking around some museum," Kai stated and Max nodded slowly, knowing he was right, after all his mind did tend to wander if it wasn't something that interested him.

"Ignore him, Kenny is just a friend," He said and kissed his cheek; "That's all,"

"You two do work well together though; the Chief is a lot tougher now that you have his back,"

The two laughed at that and Max moved closer to Kai, feeling his eyelids getting heavy.

"Go to sleep Maxie, Kenny won't be needing to train you," Kai said softly and the blonde felt himself drift off to sleep; "Good," Slowly he moved away from his boyfriend and stood up, stretching when someone knocked on the door; "Tch," He opened it to find Tyson glaring at him.

"Kenny wants you for something. He's in his room," After delivering the message he walked away and Kai looked back at Max, grabbing his hotel key card and closing the door behind him.

Walking to the room two doors away he knocked and waited.

"Come in!" Dizzi called out and Kai entered the room, not surprised to find the laptop busy looking over the performances of each team member, but he found Kenny nowhere in sight; "He's in the bathroom," The trapped bit beast said helpfully.

"Kenny?" Kai knocked on the bathroom door and heard a groan; "Kenny..?" He slowly turned the door knob and found it unlocked, opening it he saw the shorter teen on his knees by the sink,

"Oh, Tyson got you, good…"

"Yea, Tyson got me, what happened?" Kai asked, crouching down to him, wondering why Kenny's _best friend_, Tyson, wasn't around helping him.

"I felt fine when I sent Tyson to get you, but… I feel so…"

"I blame the stress!" Dizzi added her opinion as Kenny turned green and moved to the toilet, although he retched, nothing came up.

"I think Dizzi is right," Kai said to him who shook his head; "Doesn't help that we have been traveling a lot more than usual,"

"I'm… I'm fine!"

"No, you're not," Kai picked him up and took him out of the bathroom, towards his bed, letting the boy get comfortable while he grabbed a glass of water and a jug, along with a basin and put them by his bed.

"Kai, honestly I'll be fine in the morning," Kenny moved to check over the information Dizzi was going through when the bluenette picked up the laptop and moved the machine away; "Hey!"

"_Rest_," Kai ordered sternly; "I can record the match tomorrow, right now we need you back to full health,"

"But I…" Kenny began to complain, but looking into Kai's eyes he knew there was no point, Kai could be as stubborn as Tyson when he wanted.

_It's just a bug, one of those twenty-four hour ones._

"Rest Kenny," Kai said, switching the lamp on by Kenny's bedside table and walked away, taking the wires for Dizzi to be charged up before they left for Tyson's match the next day.

"Thank Kai," The trapped bit beast said quietly as he closed the room door.

"Don't worry about it, so long as he doesn't have any distractions he should be better in no time," Kai told her and walked back to his room; "So, why did Kenny want to see me?"

"Oh, he wanted to show you have far everyone had improved," Dizzi began as he entered his room, she noticed that Max was sleeping on his bed, but rather than saying anything; as she normally would had the other's been around; she just lowered her voice and explained the improvements.

Kai watched everything for most of the night, only noticing the time when it was almost dawn; _This must be how Kenny does it. Lose track of time._ He mused; "All right I'll figure out a training plan, Kenny's idea is good, but we should keep adding to it,"

"All right, you're going to sleep?" Dizzi asked and he nodded.

"Only for a few hours, then we'll see how well Tyson does against Enrique," Kai said, wondering what the Italian blader's bit beast was.

XXX

"Morning Kai," Rei said, yawning into his hand as he came down for breakfast, although Rei used to think of himself as an early raiser, being around Kai had proven him wrong, although he had no idea how Kai managed to get up so early!

Rather than form a word, Kai just nodded at him, sipping his coffee and looking through the data on Dizzi. He had to admit to himself, if not to anyone else, that Kenny was good at what he did; he made simulation battles with every type of combination beyblade he could think of and tested it out in the simulation. Although a real beyblattle was always needed for the final effect, it did give Kenny some rough ideas of what could go wrong if a certain beyblade was given to the wrong person.

"You know Kai, I have no idea how you manage," Dizzi commented suddenly and Rei was surprised to find that Kai was on Kenny's laptop.

"Dizzi, is the Chief all right?" Rei asked as he sat down at the table.

"He's got a bug, _he_ thinks it just one of those twenty-four hour ones, but I think its stress," Dizzi told him, although she continued to pull up data for Kai to read.

"I think Tyson could have used his help today," Rei said softly, although he worried about the younger boy, was the stress of the last two tournaments getting to him?

"It's just going to be a challenge, he can't keep on relying on Kenny for every match, he needs to figure it out on his own," Kai said bluntly.

Rei just nodded, after all Kai had a good point, how could Tyson learn more about the sport if he kept relying so heavily on Kenny?

_Aren't we all relying on the Chief?_ Rei thought as he made his way to Kenny's room, he had a small pile of toast on a plate to give to the boy; _I mean, we all need his help, it's just with Tyson he always gives more._ He knocked on the door, although he heard nothing he opened the door to find Kenny in the bathroom. Placing the plate down on the table next to the bed he moved towards a window, finding the air rather stuffy and opened in a crack.

"Rei?" Kenny croaked out and the Chinese blader turned to look at him. He was a lot paler than he had been yesterday and he was shaking slightly.

"Kenny, Kai and Dizzi said you were…"

"Yea, it's just a bug, it'll go," Kenny made his way carefully to the bed and crawled back in, the covers going right up to his chin.

"I brought you some breakfast, guess you won't be needing it though," Rei said and smiled at him, glad that the young teen wasn't trying to leave his room to join them.

"I'll eat later, if I don't am sure Kai and Dizzi will make me after the match," He told him, getting comfortable.

"Just rest, I'll see you when we come back," Rei said and took his leave, having noticed Kenny was barely awake.

It was Rei who told Tyson and Max why Kenny couldn't join them, as they went towards a taxi to take them to the area that Enrique and Oliver told them to meet.

Although they were stunned to find the area which had formally been a large patch of grassland was now a miniature coliseum.

Entering the newly built arena wearily the Bladebreakers found that Enrique was waiting for them and Oliver was in the stands.

"Wow," Max said as he looked around the arena, although Kai pulled him towards the stands since the two beybladers were getting ready to fight; "this is impressive,"

"A bit much for a beybattle," Kai said, turning on the laptop and getting the camera ready.

"I guess so, but if Enrique has this much money I suppose he can afford to splash out," Rei said as he sat down next to them, with Oliver joining them.

"He just likes to show off is all," The French teen informed them; "That's one of his flaws." He looked at the team next to him and frowned, noticing the bluenette was dealing with the laptop; "Isn't there one missing?"

"Huh?" Max blinked over at him, although Kai never heard the question, making sure everything was ready for Dizzi to film the match.

"Yea, Kenny was feeling ill," Rei told him; "It was decided he'd be better off staying at the hotel, he'd feel better sooner than going around Italy,"

"That's a shame, but he's going to film the battle?" Oliver pointed to Kai and Max nodded.

"Yes, Kenny doesn't like missing out on stuff, this way he can watch the battle and analyse the beyblade,"

"Analyse?"

"Oh, he's _really_ into the sport, he doesn't really like competing but he knows his stuff,"

"So," Oliver thought over what had been said for a moment; "He's the guy that fixes your beyblades?"

"Kinda, he also, along with Kai, helps us with our training," Rei added and Max nodded with a smile.

"So you rely on others…?" Oliver began, but Kai interrupted;

"We're a team; relying on each other isn't as bad as you seem to think. If one team mate notices a flaw in another's beyblade then they can help to fix that problem, its obstacles and overcoming them,"

The French teen said nothing, but watched as the match between Enrique and Tyson began and quickly became intense.

"What are the chances of Tyson winning?" Max asked Dizzi, turning his gaze towards the laptop.

"Not good, have you _seen_ Enrique's bit beast? It's huge!" The trapped bit beast said.

"It is big, but Tyson should be able to overcome it," Kai commented and the other's just looked at him in surprise.

"How do you mean?" Oliver asked his interest piqued.

"Just watch," Kai paused for a moment as all eyes went back to the battle; "Enrique's bit beast _is_ big, and Dragoon is small, but Tyson can use that to his advantage, if he _thinks_,"

Rather than ask any more questions the teens watched the battle, surprised that Tyson managed to win, as was Enrique and Oliver.

"How… How did he…" The Italian began, but Max just frowned at him, although he said nothing until they left the arena.

"He used his bit beast like a slave," He commented to Rei who nodded.

"Yea, they aren't partners at all, lucky for him that Tyson managed to stop his bit beast from turning on him fully,"

"Tyson!" Oliver called out to them, jogging towards the team, with Enrique following behind; "That was a good match, but we were wondering if you wanted to battle someone even _stronger_?"

The three Bladebreakers groaned as Tyson's eyes lit up in delight, the prospect of a new beybattle always excites him.

"Sure, when and where?" Tyson asked, full of confidence once more, please with himself for defeating a bit beast of such a grand size and he was _sure _that if the chance came up again he could defeat Robert too.

"Oh, just meet us back here tomorrow," Enrique told them with an easy smile; "In the afternoon, say one?"

Tyson agreed readily and sprinted off while the rest of the team looked at the two; Rei shrugged and followed Tyson while Max and Kai stayed behind.

"You're up to something," Kai said as he looked at the two, although he didn't know _what_ exactly they were up to, they were definitely up to something.

"Us?" The Italian pointed to himself and Oliver; "Nah, we noticed that Tyson likes a challenge, this will be a big one,"

"Don't worry, trust us, everything will be explained soon," Oliver said and the two walked away from them.

Kai watched them go, glaring at their backs while Max tugged him away.

"Come on, we need to check up on the Chief,"

Kai followed him, noticing the others were waiting by the taxi as he got in; he ignored what the others were saying, and just thought about what Oliver and Enrique were up to.

_Who would bother with us? Why keep giving us challenges? What's there game?_ He could have shouted in frustration, but he remained silent; _This doesn't make sense, they aren't even involved in the tournament, there has to be something going on._

Rather than head straight to Kenny's room, he went back to his own and Max trailed after him, noticing that the bluenette seemed wound up over something.

"Kai?" Max stood in the doorway, unsure if he wanted him around.

"Come in Maxie," He said and the blonde closed the door and sat on his bed as Kai looked out of the window; "Something isn't right, why are they challenging Tyson? One after the other?"

"Huh?" Max blinked and then noticed the pattern; "Yea, they all seemed to start… They all have huge bit beasts, like Robert's,"

"Yes, strange isn't it?" Kai said and switched Dizzi on; "And Oliver asking about us working as a team…"

He giggled and Kai raised an eyebrow at him; "Sorry, but you are the last person that we thought we'd hear the team speech from,"

"He does have a point Kai; you remember that first night in Hong Kong?" Dizzi said and the bluenette looked at the laptop; "After Mr Dickinson said 'There's no I in team' you added with 'there's no Kai either',"

Kai closed his eyes and sighed, she had a point, they both did. He wasn't one for _team spirit_. It wasn't him, he was so used to working on his own and yet… And yet being part of this team had opened him up in more ways than one. He was with Max and he gained a good friend in Kenny and through Kenny he also had a friend in Dizzi.

"I guess things change," He admitted and Max moved over to hug him.

"For the better," He mumbled into his chest.

"So, are we going to head to Russia?" Dizzi asked and the two teens looked at each other before looking at the laptop; "Oh no… What happened?"

"Well, we are going somewhere else…" Max began.

"We don't know where, Tyson has agreed to another challenge," Kai said tiredly and Dizzi sighed.

"I'm glad Tyson is getting some benefit from this, but Kai, no one else is getting the same experience as him,"

"I know, but right now Tyson needs the extra help," Kai informed her; "Besides telling Tyson he _can't_ take up a challenge is just as bad as trying to get Tyson to train,"

"You mean the rest of us don't? Or that we do better in training?" Max teased him, resting his head on his shoulder.

"The latter. We'll see what happens tomorrow," Kai said; "Maybe someone else will get to battle instead,"

"That would be a good show to see," Dizzi commented and Kai smirked.

"Yea, you know you'll still be filming it regardless," He said, turning his head to breath in Max's scent.

"You are going to take me to the Chief right? Or are you two wanting a moment _alone_?" She said the last word in a suggestive tone that caused Max to spring away from Kai.

"Yea, Kenny will want to watch the battle," Kai stood up and picked up the laptop, not before Max kissed him and left the room.

"Aww! You two are so cute!" Dizzi commented although he said nothing back, just walked to Kenny's room to return the laptop.

XXX

The team meet back up with Oliver and Enrique, with Kenny feeling a lot better, although nervous about the next trip and then learning they had no idea where they were going felt a bit ill once again.

The team calmed him though, Rei telling him it was to improve Tyson's training.

Then the two teens told the team where they were going.

"Germany!" Kenny had yelled out; "We're meant to be in Russia! We have a tournament to get to! Tyson has had three beybattles so far out with the team! How many have the rest of you had?"

While he ranted on, with Enrique looking on with interest, he hadn't seen the short teen before and Oliver looking rather amused; the Bladebreakers once more calmed Kenny down.

Kenny had thankfully quietened down when they arrived at the lonely castle in Germany, although the whole team had been surprised at who lived there.

None other than the German beyblader; Robert.

"All right I want a rematch!" Tyson had declared, while Robert looked at him blankly.

"Who are you?" He asked, only making Tyson angrier.

"What? You were on that ship!" He began to rant and rave, not noticing a red haired teen coming towards them, a smirk plastered on his face.

"Geez Robert, how badly did you beat him?"

"Johnny," Robert looked at him and shook his head; "I don't remember beybladers I have defeated, once they have lost I forget them, they are no challenge to me,"

"Tch, he's loud isn't he?" Johnny looked over the team, ignoring Tyson, his gaze moved over Max; _Nah, doesn't look so tough._ Then to Rei; _Possibly. Possibly._ Then they landed on Kai and he took a step towards the silent teen; "I challenge you," He pointed at him and Kai just looked at him.

"No thanks,"

Everyone looked at him in surprise, Johnny in rage.

"What?"

"I said no thank you," Kai reiterated slowly; "Besides I don't have time to play games with the likes of you,"

"No one has ever refused to beybattle Johnny," Oliver said quietly to Rei, who nodded silently, getting a feeling that this would end well.

"You've crossed the line buddy and now you're going to have to pay!" Johnny snapped at Kai, who closed his eyes.

"Seems someone skipped their anger management class," Kai said and then felt something hard hit his side, opening his eyes he looked down to see a metal gauntlet on the floor; _So, the hot head wants to fight, huh?_

"You're mine!"

"All right then, let's do it," He said, glaring back at the boy.

"Are you sure?" Max asked him, worried; after all Johnny did seem rather cocky about his skills, he didn't want Kai to underestimate him.

"Oh yea, this match is going to be sweet!" Rei said cheerfully, believing that Kai could win against this guy, after all it was Kai.

XXX

The end of the battle had been a surprise for everyone, Kai had lost, although Johnny had commended him on his skills, but that didn't sooth the anger Kai felt.

_I thought we were getting stronger._ He thought as he looked at his beyblade, gripping it tightly in his hand; _We should have been able to defeat him quickly… so what if he's a knight?_

Johnny and the other three European's had left the room with the Scottish teen getting ready to leave.

"Why did you go after him with such force?" Enrique asked and Johnny just stared at him.

"I wanted to, what's the big deal?"

"You need to remember it's a game, you don't have to take it so seriously," Oliver said to him.

"Who cares, they learned the lesson didn't they?"

"We were asked to do this as a favour, to help build them up, to make them stronger," Robert said thoughtfully; "I suppose we only focused on Tyson, because he kept taking up the challenge,"

"Actually…" Enrique laughed nervously and Oliver smiled, Robert looked at them, demanding to know what was so funny.

"We never challenged him, he challenged _us_," Oliver informed him and Robert groaned.

"No wonder Kai wasn't able to defeat Johnny; if Tyson's the only one getting any benefit from battling us,"

"Tch, who cares? They are weak; they shouldn't have gotten so far…" Johnny began.

"Hold it right there!" A familiar, obnoxious voice called out to them, Oliver and Enrique froze, wondering how much the boy had heard, while Johnny just looked at him with distain and Robert was indifferent; "We're not done, not by a long shot,"

"Oh?" Enrique asked, interested in what Tyson was trying to get at.

"You," Tyson angrily pointed at Johnny; "Think we are weak? We'll guess what buddy we'll prove you wrong!"

"Oh? How so?" Robert asked before Johnny could say anything.

"A beyblade battle, a small tournament, whoever wins will go to the World Championships,"

The rest of the Bladebreakers walked in and heard the challenge and the prize.

"Oh here we go," Rei said and rolled his eyes, although he didn't like the odds, if Kai was defeated by Johnny what hope did the rest of them have?

"Tyson really doesn't think," Max said and shook his head, looking over at Kai, who had remained silent.

"All right, agreed," Robert said after a pause; "However with the storm over us right now you shall need to stay here for the night, then you can see to your own travel arrangements,"

"All right," Kai said with a short nod and everyone looked at him in surprise; "Where will we sleep?"

Robert got his butler to show the team where their rooms would be, Kai walking next to Kenny before he went to his room.

"Here," The bluenette handed the shorter boy a credit card; "Book our flight back to Italy, and try to get the same hotel as before,"

He didn't wait for an answer, just went into the room he was shown and closed the door, leaving Kenny stunned and then quickly ran after the others.

_Whose card…_ Kenny looked at the card carefully and was stunned by the name; _This is… Kai's card? He's been paying for us this whole time? I thought the BBA were paying for our accommodation?_

When shown his room he bid the other's goodnight and switched Dizzi on, he couldn't figure it out.

"Chief?" Dizzi repeated his name and he let out an intelligent; "Huh?" In response.

"Something wrong? You can't still be thinking about that lost match, Kai was against someone with the same element as him, it would have gone either way,"

"No… I mean yes… I… Dizzi, I think Kai's been paying for us to stay in these hotels,"

"What? Chief don't…" Before she could argue Kenny held the credit card up and she paused; "What if he's only paying for the hotel's just now? The BBA probably will take the credit notes and reimburse him,"

_Why didn't I think of that?_

"Anyway, shall we…" She stopped when she noticed that Kenny was going onto hotel in Italy; "Er… chief? We're in Germany,"

"I know, but Kai wants to go back to Italy, I'm to book the plane tickets and the hotel, the same hotel as before,"

"Give me the card details and I can do it, you can go and check out all the data from the match," Dizzi suggested and Kenny nodded; "But no late night tonight Chief, it might have been a short bug you had, but let's not take any chances,"

Kenny nodded as he watched the replay of the battle, making notes on the laptop, then he watch all of the other battles that Tyson had with these European bladers. Although it should have been a long night, Dizzi had demanded that he went to bed when midnight struck.

_Nothing worse than a nagging bit beast_. Kenny thought as he tucked himself up in bed;_ I hope Kai is all right, I've never seen him lose… At least not when I've been on the same side as him._

Kai had replayed the match over and over in his mind's eye; he lay on his bed, trying to figure out where he went wrong; _Everything was perfect… Was it because we are both fire types? No, that can't be it… Then what can the reason be?_ Training wise Kai knew he hadn't slacked off, if anything he trained with more intensity; _What's changed?_ As he thought it over and over he heard a light knock on his door, wearily he got up, hoping it was someone he actually liked, rather than Tyson.

"Hey," Max stood there and waved awkwardly, Kai grabbed his arm and pulled him into the room, closing the door he wrapped his arms around him; "Kai…"

The bluenette said nothing, realising what the change was, knowing that he might have to put a stop to it, knowing that he would be taking steps backwards and yet…

"Nothing," Kai moved away from him quickly, the cold, uncaring mask was back and Max was stunned at its sudden return.

"I just wanted to know that you were all right, you worried us,"

"By losing?" Kai said bitterly.

"By not reacting, you didn't say a word," Max told him and sat on the bed; "You said something to Kenny, what was it?" Kai just looked at him blankly; "Stop it! Everyone loses Kai, _everyone_, but when you lose you can get better…"

"My moves were flawless Max, my attacks were perfect," Kai hissed back at him; "I've been going over the battle in my head since it was over, trying to figure out…"

"Nothing?" 

"Johnny maybe strong, but it was luck," Kai stated and looked at the blonde with grim determination; "Next time luck won't save him,"


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Odd2 Chapter 9

Rating: T

Summary: Kai is disappointed at his loss, but it also proves to strain his relationship with Max; but the question is, can the Bladebreakers defeat the European teens?

When the team arrived back in Italy, Kai appeared to become distant to them all, focusing solely on training but that didn't mean he allowed the other's to slack off; if anything he worked them harder than ever before, which worried Kenny.

"Kai?" He asked wearily, although he now counted on Kai as a friend, he still had moments when he was easily intimidated by him, like right now, when those garnet eyes glared over to him; "Can I speak to you for a moment?" _I hope my voice didn't shake!_

The bluenette looked over at his team, Rei and Tyson were training against each other, while Max was perfecting in endurance, he then returned his sight on Kenny and nodded, the two walked out of them room and the three team members who were left all sighed in relief.

"Geez, talk about tension," Rei said shaking his head, although he grinned when Drigger slammed into Dragoon.

"Yea, hey Max!" Tyson looked over at the blonde who never took his gaze away from his beyblade; "Can't you talk to him? This is really harsh!"

"We want to beat these guys Tyson," He replied and the other two were surprised by his tone, it was almost like Kai was rubbing off on him as well as Kenny.

"Wha…?"

"The fact that Robert and Johnny; who it turns out has only lost to Robert, are so powerful… You and Kai are rivals too, not to mention the strongest bladers on the team, we need to be able to defeat them, and we can't risk not getting to the World Championships,"

"I know that Max but…" Tyson began, but Rei interrupted him.

"We know we have to train harder, that's not the problem…"

Kenny looked over at Kai, trying to figure out what to say without incurring the wrath of the bluenette, which could be as vicious as Dranzer.

"Well?"

_I need to be calm; Kai has to understand what I am saying!_ He took a deep breath and began to speak; "The problem is you,"

"Excuse me?" Kai said, his eyes glinting at him in anger and Kenny tried to swallow the fear that crawled up his back.

"Before you lost to Johnny…" Kenny put it out there, there was no real need for him to avoid it; "The training sessions were intense, they brought out the best in everyone, even you, maybe we should have made them harder, but regardless you are bringing a lot of tension into the room, which the other's don't need. I know you want to win, I know you want to defeat Johnny, but the way you are making the team feel is just going to bring us down,"

Kai just looked at him, remaining silent, which was only making Kenny worry more; _It needed to be said right? Maybe I should have asked Max to do it; Kai might have taken it better from him…_

"All right," Kai said with a sigh, his shoulders slumped slightly; "You keep training with them, make sure they _don't_ slack off,"

Kenny just stared at him in surprise; _that's too easy, hang on…_

"Kai? What about you? You need to…"

"I know, but right now if I am bringing tension to the team, I think I should take myself out of the training, I can do it alone," He informed him and turned to walk away.

"But that's the point in us training together!"

"Kenny, I've been training on my own for a long time, I can become stronger on my own, I can _defeat_ Johnny on my own," Kai snarled and walked away, leaving Kenny stunned.

_He's… He's angry with himself, that's why there was so much tension in the room, Kai finds himself weak, he believes that training alone..._ Kenny let him go though, one because he didn't want Kai to snap at him and two because he knew it would do no good.

Sighing he turned walked back into the training room and noticed that everyone was looking at him; "What?"

"Where's Kai?" Rei asked and Tyson grinned at the other side of the beydish.

"Did you get rid of him Chief?"

"Tyson!" Max cried out and Tyson turned to him, waving his arms in apology.

"I didn't mean it like that!"

"Just focus on training, Kai is doing his own thing," Kenny said and while Rei and Max nodded Tyson huffed.

"As per usual, he can't take losing can he?"

"Like you were any better when Robert defeated you?" Kenny reminded him as Max nodded in agreement and Tyson just looked at him; "Because if I remember right, you were happy to train hard for all of a day and then you wanted to slack off again,"

"Hey I…" Tyson began to defend himself, but Max stepped in.

"Knock it off, Kai has always trained on his own," He said, picking up his beyblade and looked at Kenny who nodded at him; "Just because he's been training alongside us doesn't mean he won't go back to his normal routine," He left the room, deciding that perhaps he needed to see Kai too, if the emotions he read off Kenny's face were anything to go by.

"Sessh, Next time I'll keep my mouth closed," Tyson said, so absorbed in the conversation that he never noticed Rei defeating him; "Huh? No way!"

"You never asked me to stop," Rei told him with a smile; "Besides this shows you get distracted

too easily,"

"So…" Kenny came up to them, beginning to dish out new training routines for the two, while Max went looking for his grouchy boyfriend.

When he left the hotel he heard the similar sound of tin cans falling over in the alley way next to the hotel, peaking at the corner he spotted Kai, tension filled as he trained, although he had only been doing this for ten minutes.

_How can he keep going? Being filled with such tension doesn't mean you can keep battling for long._ Max thought to himself, readying his own beyblade and launching it at Dranzer, much to Kai's surprise who turned to look at him and glared.

"What do you think you are doing?"

"Helping you train," Max said with a smile; "You can't do this alone Kai…"

"I've been alone for some time Max, I'm the world champion, I refuse to let some rich kid dethrone me," He said, his words full of venom and those blue eyes soften.

"Kai, come on, you know this isn't the way to…"

"How do you know that?" Kai turned on him; "I was doing well before I decided to help Kenny out with training…"

"I _know_ you don't mean that! You _liked_ helping Kenny!" Max exclaimed as their blades slammed into each other, both were anger filled in their moves and words.

"Really? Maybe I was just telling you what you wanted to hear," Kai said snidely and brought out Dranzer to finish the battle; "I don't need anyone, got that?"

"Kai…" Max picked up his beyblade and looked into those garnet eyes, trying to figure out what Kenny saw and for a moment he did see it; _Oh Kai, do you really think…_

"Go back and train with the other's Max, that's how _you_ get stronger, by relying on people," Kai turned his back on him.

"That's not true, Kai I know you think it's because you weren't strong enough, that you didn't think things through…"

"Max," Kai snapped at him; "If I had made sure I was focused on training rather than looking around I would have defeated him! Had I kept you all…"

"Kept us away, you can't mean that Kai," He said softly; "You _don't_ mean it, you enjoyed yourself, when you were around Kenny, who saw you as a friend, someone he could talk to about things that are more technical and _know_ that you would not only understand, but help him, support him," He backed away and sighed; "You know what? I'm done, do what you want,"

Max walked away and returned to the hotel, with Kai watching him, closing his eyes he sighed; _I'm sorry Maxie, I am… I just…_ He looked at his own beyblade and wondered if there was a reason why he needed to keep people away; it couldn't be due to them making him weaker, could it?

Shaking the thoughts from his head, he proceeded to train just as hard as before, but a little voice in the back of his head kept whispering to him, distracting him; _Maybe you should talk to him. Maybe you should figure out what you want, because it can't just be about winning…_

Kai proceeded to ignore the voice for as long as he could, until in the end it drove him to distraction and he found no solution in his training.

XXX

In the evening, two nights later, Kai finally went to Max's room, to find Kenny was there typing away on his laptop, but the blonde was nowhere in sight.

"You really did a good number on Max," Dizzi said sharply and Kenny tried to become smaller, hoping that he wouldn't have to deal with Kai's sharp tongue.

"Where did he go?" Kai asked Kenny, ignoring Dizzi's comment.

"He, Tyson and Rei went to the cinema," Kenny informed him, willing Dizzi to remain silent, but the bit beast would not remain silent.

"I may be trapped in here Kai, but you're the one who has to deal with the consequences," Dizzi told him and now Kai turned his attention on the laptop.

"Huh?" He finally spoke, frowning at the laptop.

"'Huh' he says! Geez Kai, you really aren't a people person are you?" Dizzi was ready to begin a rant when Kenny quickly muted the laptop and looked at the bluenette before sighing.

"Kai, Max is cut up. He doesn't know what to do, his training should be helping him improve but he's been getting worse," Kenny began and gestured for him to sit down.

"How can he be getting worse? And how can it be my fault?" Kai demanded to know.

"Kai, what you said to Max the other day, did you really think it wouldn't affect him? We all know Max is more sensitive than he usually lets on, so what you said to him really cut deep. He's trying to focus, he really has been, Rei's been trying to do one to one, but with this match going on he needs to focus on his own training and Max knows that,"

"I came here to speak to Max…"

"Yes, but you are too late. You should have come the next day _after_ you had argued!" Kenny paused for a moment, noticing that Dizzi had managed to put the volume back up; "Look, wait here for a bit, that way Max will come in and you won't have to search for him, I'll make myself scarce…"

"Oh, wait till I'm through with him Chief!" Dizzi cried out and Kai smirked; "Max was…"

"Kenny's already told me,"

"Then what were you up to? Why didn't you…" Dizzi trailed off, realising her mistake; "Oh…"

"You keep forgetting Dizzi," Kenny said softly.

"I don't have friends, I don't know about these… _rules_ that came along with them," Kai said, nearly spitting out the last few words, hating that he had to admit it to them, but knowing that neither would put him down for it; "Right now, I guess I only have you two…"

"And Max," Dizzi added, but Kai shook his head; "What? Of course you do!"

"Not until we sort things out," Kai told her and sat back on the chair; "How is the training going?"

So the three of them talked, until it got so late that Kai knew he had to go, since Kenny was falling asleep.

"Dizzi, tell Max…" Kai said softly, making sure Kenny was on his bed and his glasses were off.

"Don't worry Kai, I'll make sure he knows," Dizzi replied in a whisper and Kai shut her down, placing the laptop on the table by the bed nearest Kenny and quietly left the room, only to find himself face to face with Max.

"Kai?" The blonde's usually bright blue eyes held a sheen of tiredness, now they saw him they also had weariness.

"Max, we need to talk,"

"Really?" Max got defensive, folding his arms across his chest; "I don't think we have anything to talk about, you made everything clear…"

"Look, Maxie, please…"

Max froze; _I've never heard Kai say 'please' before, and he does sound like he's pleading… What is his game?_ He looked at Kai and then his room door; "Kenny's asleep?"

"Yea, come on," He gestured to him own room and Max followed.

When entering the room the blonde felt like Kai never spent any time here, that he solely slept here and that was it, his suitcase was next to the wardrobe, nothing unpacked.

"Look I know…"

"If you don't want to be together then say so," Max said bluntly, much to Kai's surprise; "I was an idiot, I was talking to Kenny about it and we figured… Well, you don't know what it's like to have friends, people who like you for being _you_, not because they are afraid of you," Kai was about to speak but Max went on; "Maybe we went too fast, maybe that was my fault…"

"Max, it wasn't your fault," Kai pulled him close and sighed; "But you are right, we might have gone a bit too fast," He rested his chin on top of Max's head and felt himself relaxing; "But I don't want it to change,"

"Kai…"

"We'll figure something out," Kai moved away from him with reluctance; "Right now we need to focus on training," He smirked and Max looked away.

"Kenny told you about that huh?"

"It's fine, that was my fault," Kai said with a slow nod; "But now we can focus on defeat those guys,"

"Right," Max grinned, the sparkle, the _liveliness_ had returned into his eyes once more and the bluenette was thrilled to see its return.

_Without that spark, Max isn't Max._

XXX

Soon the match against the European team was upon them, Max had decided to let Kai battle in his place, pointing out that Kai had been training harder than the rest of them and also he had something to prove.

No one argued, not even Tyson.

So when they went to the stadium to battle, they found Robert and Johnny were to blade, along with Oliver, while Enrique was the backup; although the Italian didn't appreciate that.

"Am I alone in thinking that they don't seem to act like much of a team?" Rei asked the others, eyeing up the Majestics, as Jazzman had called them during the announcements.

"No, I think you're right there Rei, they _don't _seem to act like a team," Max agreed and looked over to Tyson and Kai; "But sometimes I don't think we always act like a team either,"

"I guess, but we do pull together when it counts," The Chinese blader reminded him, as it was announced he was to go first, against Oliver; "Well, here's hoping all that training has paid off,"

"I know you can do it Rei!" Tyson called out to him and Rei smiled.

As the teams watched on, they found that Oliver and Rei were evenly matched, with both beyblades out of the dish at the same time.

"Sorry guys," Rei said as he came over to them.

"Don't worry about it," Tyson said with a grin; "That was a great match!"

"Yea, it was fun," Rei looked over at Kai; "It's you next,"

Rather than saying anything, Kai just nodded and walked over to the dish, not surprised to find Johnny already waiting for him.

"Well this should be pretty quick," The red head said with a smirk.

"I was thinking that too," Kai finally said and Johnny glared at him.

The Bladebreakers were on the edge of their seats during the match, although every time Tyson tried to help Kai, he kept getting shot down.

"What is with him?" Tyson moaned; "All we're doing is trying to help,"

"You know what Kai is like Tyson; he prefers to figure it out on his own…" Kenny began and looked at the beydish to see Johnny's bit beast had its tail around Dranzer's neck; "Come on Kai! I know you can figure this out!"

"I thought I told you to butt out," Kai growled at them and Kenny was taken back but Max gently touched his shoulder and shook his head;

_He doesn't mean it._

"Dranzer!" Kai called out to his bit beast who looked at him; "Fly!"

"All right, so he figured it out on his own," Rei said as they watched Johnny's beyblade stop spinning; "The old sourpuss actually did it!"

"Nice one Kai!" Tyson cheered only to get a fierce glare from Kai; "Wha…"

Kai sat down on the bench and nodded over to Tyson, Robert was already waiting for him.

The rest of the team, apart from Kai, cheered Tyson on, believing that he had the power now to defeat Robert, which he did, although the battle had been close, but Tyson managed to win it.

"All right!" Tyson cheered as he re-joined his team, although he spotted Robert coming up to him with a slight smile; "Huh? Robert?"

"Well done," The German began and his team came behind him, all of them apart from Johnny smiled, making the Bladebreakers wonder what was going on.

"Er, thanks, that was a great match!" Tyson said with enthusiasm.

"Indeed, you and your team are ready for the World Championships," Robert said and they just looked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean?" Max asked, confused and they all heard a familiar laugh.

"You did very well boys," An old man walked over to them, his walking stick clicked on the ground.

"Mr Dickinson?" Kenny said, wondering what was going on.

"This was all you're doing," Kai said having caught on quickly, he knew there was something fishy about Robert back on the ship and all the events that had happened were just too much of a coincidence.

Mr Dickinson looked at the two teams smiling at them both, then he turned he attention to Kai; "Indeed I did, your team had done well, but you know as well as I do that the level of play in the World Championships needed you all to have more training, more _learning_," He gestured over to the Majestics; "These four are the strongest beybladers of their respected countries, I was lucky to have them agree to my plan,"

"So that's why you were checking up on us," Kenny said to Robert, understanding and looked rather relieved; "That encounter back on the ship was rather stressful,"

"Really?" Robert asked an eyebrow rose up in question wondering what the short teen meant.

"He thought you were going to challenge him," Kai informed him and felt Kenny slap his arm, much to the amusement of both teams; "It's true though," He said with a shrug, he barely felt the slap on his arm and the shorter teen blushed, he hadn't wanted anyone to know about _that_.

"Oh, I already knew that you didn't blade," Robert assured him; "Mr Dickinson here wanted to make sure you were all pulling your weight,"

"Hey!" Tyson cried out and Mr Dickinson chuckled.

"He does have a point Tyson," Rei said and the boy glared at him; "Who else tried to get out of training?"

"Well with Kai and the Chief working together it was impossible to get out of!"

"Oh?" Mr Dickinson looked at the two; "That's good to hear, with the World Championships coming the more advance the training, and varied as well, the better,"

"Not to worry, we've been coming up with training plans for each individual," Kenny informed him and it looked like he was about to go into detail.

"When do we leave?" Kai interrupted, knowing too well that Kenny would get carried away and end up boring everyone to tears.

"You'll be getting the sleeper train to Moscow tonight,"

With that said the Bladebreakers said goodbye to the other team and headed back to the hotel to pack up and get to the train station, with Mr Dickinson filling them on the World Championships.


	10. Chapter 10

Title: Odd2 Chapter 10

Rating: T

Summary: Kai has to face his past, once he remembers it.

The train ride to Moscow was uneventful, Kenny was reading up on everything related to Moscow and Russia, although there was a good few things unpleasant, he found that parts were incredibly interesting.

So interesting in fact that he kept sharing facts with the team, although Tyson complained about it, Max only partially listened and Rei nodded at him. Kai was in his bunk, sleeping soundly, although Kenny felt he was just pretending so he didn't have to talk to anyone.

When the other three left to get some food, Kenny looked up at the top bunk and took a deep breath; "Are you okay Kai?"

Opening his eyes he turned his head to look at the younger teen; "I'm fine,"

"It's just; you're a lot quieter…"

"It's nothing," Kai said; "Just need a little bit more sleep than usual," Having said that he closed his eyes again and Kenny left the carriage, going off to find the others.

XXX

Once they had finally arrived in Moscow, it was the challenge of finding where the hotel was, although Kenny had a map, which he had bought at the station after they had arrived, he was having a problem translating it.

"Does _anybody_ know where we are going?" Tyson complained, not noticing how flustered Kenny was getting.

"According to my calculations, we are almost there,"

Max looked over his shoulder and narrowed his eyes at the map; "Are you sure you can read this map Chief?"

Kenny looked up at him and blushed; "Well, my Russian is a little rusty…" Before he could even look back at his map, Kai had taken it from him and pointed to the right.

"This way," He walked away from them and they all looked at him.

"Well I am having the time of my life, but does anyone know where we are going?" Tyson repeated his last question and Kai stopped at look at him.

"Just zip it and follow me,"

Having said that Kai continued to walk away; Max shrugged and followed, the others walked behind him when they came across a park that had kids beybattling.

"Oh cool," Max said as they all stopped to watch the battle going on in front of them, it was only when a few of the kids had run off that a man appeared and Kai's eyes widened , feeling like he knew this man.

"So you are the Bladebreakers, I welcome you to our training grounds. I am Boris, the head organiser for the World Tournament," He nodded to them with a smile; "But please, let us continue our conversation inside, over some lunch,"

Before any of the Bladebreakers could saying anything, Tyson's stomach rumbled and Boris laughed.

"That it's settled, lunch it is, and it's on me,"

The team followed Boris into the training ground, where Kai noticed the sign on the wall.

_Balkov Abbey, hn, I've heard of this place. It's the Demolition Boys training area._ He moved along with the others for lunch.

XXX

After lunch Tyson was given a challenge to battle one of the Abbey's young beybladers, since the Dragoon wielder had said that the Russian way of training was far too strict for his liking.

Although he had found it a hard battle, he won against the Russian boy, who was dragged away to everyone's shock.

"Now I believe it's for you to take your leave," Boris said to them, as the Russian spectators, those young students of the abbey, brought out their own beyblades and pointed at the foreigners who dared to defy Boris.

"But what's going to happen to that kid?" Tyson asked, worried about the boy who had been dragged away, who had his beyblade crushed by that man's foot.

"Forget it," Kai said and his team just looked at him in shock.

"Kai?"

"Pretend like it never happened,"

"What? No way! I could never forget that in a million years!" Tyson rounded on the team captain, who wasn't moved by his little speech.

"It's better to accept what has happened and move on, isn't that right Kai?" Boris finally spoke once more, looking right at Kai, ignoring the rest of the team.

Kai held his gaze, then closed his eyes and walked away, deciding there was no need to stay, his team follow after him and the door closed once they left the building.

"I can't believe…" Tyson began, shaking his head.

"Let it go Tyson," Kenny told him gently; "There's no point in kicking up a fuss, Boris is right, we are in a different country, their rules aren't ours and vice versa, if that is how they train, then so be it,"

"But it…" Tyson trailed off; "Ah, let's just go and find out hotel,"

"Yea, I'm getting pretty hungry," Max said as they walked away, leaving Kai standing and looking at the Abbey.

_Just wait…_ Kai thought to himself, remembering the blader's who were ready to launch at them, and the boy who had been dragged away, although he pleaded for someone to help him; _You just wait Boris; because I'll be back!_

He moved to follow the rest of the team, with Kenny looking back at him sheepishly;

"Er… Which was do we go now?" He showed Kai the map, but the bluenette didn't look at it, instead he kept walking and gestured for the others to keeping going.

Max walked quickly to be by his side; "Kai? Are you okay?"

"Hm? Yea, I'm fine,"

"Really? Because…"

"Don't worry about me Max," Kai informed him with a slight smile; "Right now we need to get to the hotel and begin a training routine,"

"Say what?" Tyson exclaimed and Kai sighed, as did Kenny.

"You were almost defeated by that kid, you might have gotten stronger, but in Russia it's a whole other level. If Max hadn't reminded you of our battle at the regional tournament you would have lost," Kai said bluntly and saw that Tyson bristled; "You might not like it, but you need it,"

When they got to the hotel and checked in they went for lunch and Kenny went through with Kai the training routine he had developed before they went to the Abbey.

"Do you have any info on the home team Chief?" Rei asked, before he took a sip of his soup.

"Well I am pretty sure we've got our work cut out for us. Unfortunately I don't have any data on the home team,"

"So we're just going to wing it?" Tyson asked mouth full of fries.

Kenny winced before he continued on; "All I know about the ream is that they have never been defeated. Which means we _can't_ goof around,"

"They sound wicked!" Max commented and Rei nodded.

"You are right about that, the word is that they play rough, they waste no time in wiping out their opponents in battle,"

"The sooner we start our training the better," Kai stated and looked at them all; "The Demolition Boys have the upper hand right now, they have probably seen out battles and we haven't seen a single one of theirs,"

"This means we need to improve all our attacks, our strategies, everything to be able to take them on!" Kenny added.

"All right, are we ready?" Rei looked at Tyson and Max, who both nodded; "Let's do this,"

"First, I think the basics first, to get you all ready, I need to go through some other things with Kai first before we put you through your paces,"

As they left to go to the training rooms under neither the hotel, Kai and Kenny went to the locker room to go over plans.

"So I was thinking we should focus on Rei's…" Kenny stopped noticing Kai was looking too intensely at the laptop; "Kai? Are you all right?"

"Yea," He replied and so the other teen carried on explain his plan, which Kai amended slightly.

For the rest of the night the team trained, although they went to bed earlier than Kai would have liked, but considering they were all suffering from jetlag there wasn't much he could do about it.

When he fell asleep, he found himself back in the Abbey, once more watching the boy being defeated by Tyson, his beyblade crushed and he was dragged away, but not before he pleaded to Kai, begged him to help. As those heavy metal doors slammed shut Kai woke up with a start and found Rei looking over at him.

"Are you okay Kai? It sounded like you were having a nightmare," Rei asked, having never heard Kai sound so emotional before, he had never heard Kai have a nightmare in all their travels.

As usual the bluenette refused to comment, although Rei was expecting it, it didn't stop him from worrying about the other blader.

When they both got up, Rei went to shower and wash his hair, while Kai got dressed and left the room, not even stopping for breakfast.

"Kai?" Rei said as he came out, towel drying his hair, only to find the teen gone; "Huh, maybe he's gone for breakfast," Wrapping his hair and getting himself dressed he made his way down to the dinning hall, meeting up with Max.

"Hey Rei! Sleep well?" Max asked him and Rei nodded.

"Yea, what about you?"

"Yea, aside from Tyson snoring,"

As they came up to Kenny and Tyson, both noticing that Tyson was, as usual, stuffing his face, Rei asked them both; "Have you guy's seen Kai?"

"No, he never came down," Kenny replied and Max looked over at Rei, wondering why he asked such a question.

"Something wrong?" The blonde asked him.

"No, he just seemed to act a bit funny this morning, it's probably nothing, guess I'm not used to sharing a room with him any more," Rei joked, although Max could see through it.

"Where are you guy's off to?" Kenny asked as Tyson once more began shovling his food into his mouth.

"I'm going to meet up with my mom at the airport," Max told them cheerfully.

"I'm going to check out the parks," Rei said and waved goodbye to the two as Max followed him; "We'll see you later,"

"Rei?" Max asked as they came out of the hotel, and walked towards one of the local parks; "What about Kai?"

"He just, he seemed to have had a nightmare, although Kai being Kai, he didn't want to talk about it," Rei said with a shrug; "I didn't want Tyson to know, you know what he would be like if he knew Kai had some kind of nightmare,"

"Yea. I just… I wonder where he went off to if none of us saw him?" Max wondered and hailed a cab; "Have fun at the parks Rei,"

"Say hi to your mom for me," Rei said with a smile and waved Max off; _Kai… Where have you run off to?_

The person in Rei's thoughts was by a river bank, looking into the water, thinking; _What's the matter with me? Why can't I get that stupid dream out of my head? It's almost like my memory is a puzzle and I… I don't have all the pieces. There's something familiar about that place, something familiar, and that man…_ Kai gasped as he saw Boris' face in the water, when someone threw a stone and the image became distorted, coming back to being his own reflection. The bluenette waited for the kids to move on before he got up and walked away, already formulating a plan in his head.

Sneaking into the Abbey grounds Kai managed to find some spare robes; _Probably be easier to get in rather than just waltzing up, they'd throw me back out._ He thought as he changed into them and quickly moved to get into the Abbey itself, bowing at the other guards who walked past, since they did the same thing to him.

_Not exactly a friendly place. But why does it feel so familiar?_ He entered the training room that Tyson had his match in, removed the robes and walked towards the large metal door, placing his hand one door he paused; _I'm… I'm afraid to go in but why?_ He looked to the side and found a large hole in the wall, a chute of some kind, although he had no idea where it would take him, he had a feeling it would be a lot easier than heading down a corridor where he'd meet even more guards.

_What?_ He thought as he noticed where he landed; moving behind some rocks and noticed that the guards were down there, along with some scientists; _A research room? This is no Abbey, it's a laboratory… And I'm starting to feel like I'm one of the lab rats._ He ran away from the room quietly, unaware that a video camera was monitoring him, making him a lab rat as he had feared.

As Kai walked along he wondered to himself; _How long has this place been hidden underneath the Abbey? They must be working on something to have this much security… These tunnels make it feel like a maze, but why do I feel like I know exactly where I am going? _He noticed a door was left partially open and walked over to it and peaked inside only to find something disturbing.

"Oh my god…" He whispered, his garnet eyes widened in shock and he backed away from the door; "All of those animals are alive, but their spirits are being taken out of them… They can't…"

He stopped and turned towards a sound further down the hallway, as he walked towards it, the sound became words; _That gives me the creeps._

"Defeat to our enemies, victory is ours," Thirty young beybladers were saying all at the same time, as they went through the motions of launching a beyblade.

As Kai watched, he noticed some of them fell to their knees and were removed, he moved along to the next area, finding that it was a type of gym, making the recruits work out to increase their endurance, and then he watched them battle each other.

He watched, clenching his fists and trying to remain silent, but he growled in frustration at how these bladers were being treated, were being _trained_.

He finally understood and slowly he moved away, feeling exhausted, bowing his head and leaned against the wall; _I remember now, I know why it haunts my dreams… I know why that man scares me…_ He back away and bumped into some one, turning around he saw _him_.

"Did I scare you young Kai? You look like you've seen a ghost," He laughed and removed his head clothe, instead he placed on a pair of red glassed; "Well Kai, remember now?"

"Ah… B… Boris," Kai fell to his knees, the pieces of the puzzle all came together; "I… I grew up, in this Abbey,"

"Welcome back, so glad that you remembered me," Boris said with a more sinister smile; "You always were a bright child. But now young Kai, you have some important decisions to make… About your future,"

Kai finally stood up and now that his fear had passed he glared at the man in front of him; "Like what?" He demanded to know.

"Like returning to us, to join the team that made you, the team that you were meant to lead…" His hand moved closer to Kai's face; "Come Kai, face your future…"

Before his hand could touch Kai, he slapped it away violently and glared at him; "No! Get this Boris, you may _think_ you know me, but I barely remember you or this rotten abbey. Coming here was a waste of time," He turned and began to run back to where he started.

"Really, well keeping running," Boris said, although he knew Kai couldn't hear him, he turned away, heading back to the main control room to watch Kai, who was about to face some obstacles.

As Kai kept running down the hallways, he found that he didn't know where the exit was, but spotting a light, which looked like it would lead to the outside he ran towards it, only to find that it was a tower, with the large windows at the top letting in so much sun light into the room. Looking around he decided to go straight ahead.

"Don't be so hasty, we are more than just a beyblade team, but a company…" Boris began to say, speaking on the overhead radio.

"What makes you think I care about that?" Kai asked, pausing from his running, wondering what Boris might spill, what could be of use to him once he gets out of this place.

"You don't have to care, you can do it for yourself. Don't you want power?"

"Not really," Kai lied, although everyone who knew him knew that he wanted to become stronger, and having power would always help him achieve that.

"You're apathy is less than convincing, but all right, what is it that you want then?"

Kai thought for a few seconds; _Max… Kenny… Dizzi…_ He breathed out slowly; "Nothing,"

"Everyone wants something, just name it and we will get it," Boris told him, but was startled to find that Kai had begun to laugh; "What's so funny?"

Kai clutched his sides as he laughed; "How… how ridiculous you are Boris!" He stopped laughing, glaring over at the camera; "If you think you can just buy me, then you really don't know me that well,"

"I know you are always striving for perfection," Boris countered, trying to gain the upper hand once more.

"What serious beyblader isn't?" Kai closed his eyes; "Perhaps I do spend more time training, to find the perfect balance between blade and technique than the average blader does, but I'm not so free agent that you can pick up on the open market," He looked up at the camera again; the defiance was clear in his eyes.

"Perhaps… " Boris began, but Kai, rather than saying anything else, brought out his beyblade and launched it at the camera, then he proceeded to run; "The abbey had eyes everywhere Kai… you'll find it a lot harder to leave this time,"

Over the period of time that Kai had been in the abbey, avoiding getting hit by lazers, using his beyblade to battle the many beyblades that were fired his way; his team had begun to go and search for him, with Rei having a rough idea of where to look and arrived at the Abbey as well, only they didn't sneak in, instead they found themselves having a beybattle between Tyson and a short kid with a rather large nose, whose friend stood behind him, his cold blue eyes scanning the team in front of them.

But over time, Kai realised that his skills in the Abbey had become far greater than they had when he was with the Bladebreakers, he was getting closer to perfection in the short space of time than he did in all the training alone and with the team, and when Boris gave him the final option?

"Black Dranzer…" Kai said as he looked at the chained up beyblade; "Fine, then. I'm all yours and Black Dranzer is all mine. Now unlock it!"

"Stop," The blue eyed teen said to the other, whose beyblade returned to his hand, he then looked at the Bladebreakers; "The one you are searching for… His name is Kai, isn't it?"

"Yea! So he is here?" Max asked the other, who nodded; "Can we see…" He stopped when the other teen shook his head.

"I'm afraid not, he was outside for a bit too long, he's caught a fever. Our doctors are checking him over, he should be fine,"

"Oh, all right," Max said, sounding a bit deflated.

"Hey, we don't know your names," Rei said before the two could leave.

"I'm Tala," The blue eyed teen said.

"And I'm Iain,"

"All right Tala, we're trusting you to keep your promise, and to let us know if anything happens," Tyson said to the taller teen who smiled slightly and nodded.

"Yes, of course,"

As they left, Max kept looking back at the abbey, having a heavy feeling in his heart that something wasn't right, that Kai, who read the Russian map so easily, would allow himself to get a fever.

_This doesn't add up, how could Kai get himself sick before an important tournament?_ Max kept on walking, trying to not let the questions that kept coming into his head affect him, he had to hope that Kai would return to them, that Kai would get better.


	11. Chapter 11

Title: Odd2 Chapter 11

Rating: T

Summary: Max learns of Kai's decision, to leave the Bladebreakers and join up with the Demolition Boys; but he's not about to let him go so easily.

Max was up bright and early, remembering his training that Kenny had given him to get stronger and also that today was the opening of the World Tournament.

_I hope Kai is well enough to meet us up._ He thought to himself as he put his beyblade through its paces, he was so focused on his bey's movements that he never noticed that Rei had come into the room.

"Hey Max,"

Leaping into the air in fright and with his heart in his throat, Max turned to glare at Rei; "Who sneaks up on a guy like that?"

"Sorry Max," Rei held his hands up, but smiled, knowing full well that the blonde wouldn't hold this against him; "I wasn't being quiet on purpose. I just wanted to get some extra training in with Driger before we head off,"

"Oh, what's the time?" Max asked and when Rei told him he picked up his beyblade and began to walked away; "I've been down here for hours!"

"Kai would be proud of that," Rei commented softly, but he still heard.

"Yea, I hope he's all right," Max said and kept walking, heading to the dining area to get something for his breakfast.

"Morning Max!" Kenny greeted him as he sat down.

"Hi Kenny,"

The shorter teen looked at him; _He never normally calls me by my name, unless something serious has happened; _"Something wrong?"

"No, no…" Max sighed and looked around the room, before taking a piece of the toast that was on the table; "I'm worried about Kai,"

"Oh, you shouldn't worry, after what that guy… Tala I think, said he'll be fine,"

"I don't know, maybe I'm being paranoid, but Rei said that Kai had a nightmare and it began _after_ we visited that place…"

"Maybe it freaked him out,"

"Maybe, but Kai doesn't get scared easily, I've managed to get him to watch a lot of movies that were scary, Paranormal Activity being one of them and all of us were scared…"

"Except Kai, I remember. I'm pretty sure he called us idiots for letting the movie get to us," Kenny said with a giggle; "He had a point…"

"So how can that place scare him? He told me that he couldn't remember much of his childhood," Max stated and Kenny nodded slowly.

"We don't know much about Kai's past, but it could be that certain memories are coming up here because they are similar to his past, he's blocked it off and now it's coming to the surface," Kenny explained and while Max nodded in agreement he couldn't help but think there was something more to it.

_But what? What am I missing?_ Max thought to himself, finishing off the slice of toast and quickly going to get himself a more substantial breakfast.

Kenny went through everyone's data, adding to Tyson's the short fight that he had against Iain, even though the other boy withdrew his beyblade before the match came to a conclusion.

_Everyone is getting stronger, but Tala had a Demolition Boy's insignia on his clothes, so I'm guessing Iain must be part of the team too… What are we going to do?_ Kenny tried to focus on the good; _Once Kai gets back I can show him this, he'll be able to help me._

It wasn't long til they were heading to the stadium and watched the All Stars getting defeated by the Demolition Boys, but the true surprise was seeing one member of their team arrived, to beyblade for the _other_ team.

"Kai!" They all cried out, with Tyson leaping down to try and stop their team captain from going on to defeat Michael.

Although it didn't do any good, Tyson was pushed away, like he was nothing more than an annoying fly to Kai. Then they saw his power.

"That's not…" Rei began amber eyes wide in surprise at the amount of power Kai had used against the whole team of All Starz

"It's a new one. That is not Dranzer," Dizzi confirmed as she recorded the match; "It looks like the same phoenix, but trust me, it's not,"

"Why… Why Kai?" Max asked, joining Tyson on the arena floor and looking at Kai, hurt and betrayal evident in his blue eyes.

"I'm getting more from them than I ever did with you weaklings," Kai told him with a smirk; "I've gained more power in a day at the Abbey than I ever did with you Blade_breakers_,"

"But Kai, you had us as friends," Max argued, trying to remind him of what _they _had but the bluenette just scoffed.

"Friends? Please Max; in this sport you only need yourself, nobody else," Saying that Kai walked away, although he quickly passed something into Max's hands as he did so.

"But… Kai…" Max watched him leave the arena, the rest of the Demolition Boys followed him and he finally looked down at the beyblade in his hands; "What? No way!"

Tyson looked over at him and saw what he was talking about, the familiar dark blue beyblade, with the red phoenix bit, Dranzer.

"How can he do that?" Tyson said angrily; "How can he _do that?_"

"Let's go guys," Rei said softly, moving the two towards the exit.

"But Rei…" Max began and showed him the beyblade Kai had given him; the Chinese blader frowned but continued to move him and Tyson out of the arena.

Once they were outside and on the bus did anyone speak.

"What a traitor!" Tyson raged on, calling Kai all the names under the sun that he could think of.

"I don't understand, we seemed to have made him open up…" Kenny said his laptop was closed as he pondered this new situation.

"Opened up? He went back to being cold before we had to battle against the Majestics!" Tyson exclaimed, feeling the need to hit something, although he wanted to hit Kai, _hard_, but he knew that he would have no chance, Kai was physically stronger than him, and it was obvious by how he swatted him away so easily.

"But, he just didn't understand," Max said in defence; "Kai has never had real friends before so how is he to know how to be around them?"

"Haven't we proven ourselves worthy to be his friends?" Rei asked Max, but there was no anger in his voice, if anything he was just as disappointed in the outcome as Max was; "Hasn't Dranzer proven to him to be a loyal bit beast? How could he just throw it away?"

"I don't know, but something is up, I doubt Kai would leave us so easily," Kenny said and Tyson began another rant, although they all ignored him, deciding that they had to think things through.

Everyone's thoughts revolved around Kai, for Rei and Tyson it was the feelings of betrayal as a team mate, but for Kenny it was losing a friend, although he had only gotten to know Kai in the past few weeks, he had learned so much from his. Max looked out the window as they drove back to the hotel, deciding that he needed to speak to his mom about this.

_I can't think this through on my own, and she might be able to help._ He thought to himself as they got off the bus and went into the hotel.

Everyone was stung by Kai leaving and as Max went to find his mom, who happened to be in the same hotel as they were, he knew that her team were also feeling the awful effects of defeat, it wasn't just losing, they also lost their bitbeasts to Kai too.

Knocking on the door to him mom's room, he waited, hoping that she was alone, as she opened the door he found the All Starz walking out, heads bent, although Michael had a malice glint in his eyes as he looked at Max;

"I take it you guy's didn't see that coming either?"

"Of course not," Max said sharply and Michael winced.

"Yea, of course, sorry Max. It's just…"

"I know," The blonde said to him with a nod; "None of us expected him to do that,"

"We'll get them back," Michael vowed and they walked away, leaving Max and his mom alone.

"Is there something wrong Max?" She asked him, although she looked happy to see him she also looked tired, exhausted.

"I just… It's about Kai," He began and she gestured for him to come in, but he noticed that she looked worn down, as though tired of all the Kai talk.

They both sat down on the bed and Max continued on; "I just… I don't think he left for the right reasons…"

"Max he left for the power of that beyblade, it's obvious," Julie stated, although she tried not to be so blunt, with her being so worn down and tired, she couldn't help it.

"I know, he always likes to be the strongest," Max agreed with a slight nod; "But we were getting through to him! Myself and Kenny, we were his friends,"

"Oh Max, someone like Kai doesn't know what friendship is," She pulled her arms around him, drawning his close and he didn't fight it.

"But he was _learning_," He insisted; "You should have seen him with the Chief; they would talk about train and…"

"Maxie, he's the team captain and Kenny…"

"He _never_ did that before!" Max finally exclaimed to her surprise, her hold loosened and she looked down at him; "He would let the Chief do what he wanted, maybe added some extra's here and there, but they were _working together_. Kenny and Dizzi counted on him to help with their game plans," He took a breath, he had to admit the last part; "And I… I though he _liked_ me… I thought we were…" Tears stung his eyes and he felt his mom pull him close again, the scent of his mom always soothed him before, but now? Now it wasn't doing the job, his heart felt like it was ripped in two and he had no idea how to fix it.

"You… Loved him huh?" Julie asked with a slight smile as Max nodded; "Maybe you're right, maybe he doesn't know what friendship truly is, but I know… I _know_ you and your team can remind him. You guy's have done the impossible before, this should be easy,"

Max never replied, just having spoken to his mom soothed him and he felt his eyes become heavy, the tears had stopped falling and he drifted to sleep.

"Oh Max, I hope for your sake that Kai realises what a terrible decision he has made," Julie said softly, letting sleep take her as well, holding Max close to her as she drifted off.

XXX

When Max finally woke up it was the middle of the night, and for a few moments he had no idea where he was. He was pretty sure he was sharing a room with Kenny and Tyson, but the room appeared to be too small, when he noticed arms were wrapped around him he remembered and smiled.

Slowly he got up, trying not to disturb his mom, he quietly left the room, closing the door and made his way back to his own room.

_I always get the best advice from her._ He thought to himself, although he felt the need to speak to the Chief as well, after all he needed to pass the advice his mom had given him.

Quietly he sneaked into his room, finding that Kenny had left his laptop on, the light of the machine lit the room, although the two teens were fast asleep. Tyson was spread across his bed, while Kenny slept at the desk, fixing up a beyblade, although Max couldn't be sure whose beyblade it was, although he was sure it wouldn't be Driger, Rei always liked to keep his beyblade next to him, although he didn't know why and if frustrate Kenny to no end, since he liked them all to train during the day and he could fix up the beyblades at night.

As he moved to the bathroom to get into his pyjama's he heard a moan from Kenny and noticed that he was waking up.

"Chief…" Dizzi said softly, noticing Max but she never said anything, letting the boy carry on and get changed, although he wasn't aware that she knew he was there.

"Hmm?" Kenny rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock on his computer; "Ah! Why didn't you wake me?"

"Kenny you need your sleep just as much as the rest of the team…" Dizzi began, but the teen shook his head.

"Dizzi, this is the _World championships_, we are a man down, and we can't have sleep when beyblades need to be mended!"

"Calm down Chief," Max said as he quickly switched off the bathroom light.

"Max! Where were you?"

"I was speaking to my mom, I guess I dozed off,"

Kenny just nodded; "Rei thought that was where you were, oh, what are we going to do?" He sounded so stressed, more so than Max had ever heard him before.

"Kai needs to remember that he _needs_ friends," Max told him, but Kenny shook his head violently.

"He's drawn to the power of that beyblade, it's identical to Dranzer in nearly every way, _but _it has more power," Kenny showed him the data; "No one in this team could withstand such power. He'll wipe us out just like he did with the All Starz,"

"Kenny, I _know_ we can remind him," Dizzi said, surprising the two teens; "What? I know Kai wants to be powerful, but lets face it, he was _given_ that beyblade, he never took the time to train with it like he did with Dranzer,"

The two looked at her and then at each other, before Max noticed the beyblade next to Kenny, it was _blue._

"Dranzer," He said softly, picking up the blade, noticing the modification Kenny had done to it.

"Luckily Dizzi can speak to other bit beasts," He said quietly and Max looked at him in surprise; "We didn't want anyone to know, Dizzi rarely converses with other bit beasts, but this was an exception,"

"I'll say, how's Dranzer taking it?" Max asked, unsure how bitbeasts felt in comparison to humans, he didn't know if they had the same emotional capacity as they did.

"Hurt, to put it simply," Dizzi informed him and he nodded; "Dranzer really wants to beybattle Black Dranzer,"

"But Dranzer wouldn't stand a chance, no one in the team would be able to control the bitbeast," Kenny argued, looking at the beyblade which Max picked up and smiled at him.

"I want to battle Black Dranzer too," Max said softly to the phoenix; "Kenny's right, none of us have the skill to command you,"

"You make it sound like Dranzer _needs_ someone to control the power of a phoenix," Dizzi responded, letting them know what the phoenix was telling her; "Dranzer knows Kai, he strives for perfection, and to achieve that he'll want to defeat…"

"Us," Max finished for her.

"Oh my…" Kenny began to wring his hands over and over, trying to figure out what he could do to modify the beyblade's of each team member.

"Don't sweat it Chief," Max told him putting Dranzer back where he found it and crawled over to his bed; "Have faith in us, Kai can't defeat all of us, after all Tyson did beat him…"

"Oh you know as well as I do Max, that was luck. Kai has been training a _lot_ harder," Kenny stopped and sighed; "I wish he was here…"

"Yea, me too," Max felt the tears coming on again; _No! No more crying, we'll get him back. We have to bring him back._

"Yea, I guess you feel it more…"

"No, you are his friend Kenny, there isn't any difference in the pain," Max told him simply; "Get some sleep, tomorrow is another day,"

"Yea, where Kai could easily battle us all," Kenny said with a shiver, but he switched off hs laptop, tucking Dranzer safely away and lay down on his bed, feeling sleep overtake him without much help from himself.

Max smiled as he watched Kenny sleep; _Kai, you have friends who are worried about you, why did you take the easy way? The hardest way is the best, you'll show your true potential…._

He remembered the end of the match, when Black Dranzer took away the All Starz bitbeasts into its own beyblade. He never thought it was possible for a bitbeast to do that, but he was wrong.

_Kai, we're going to free you. You'll see that being part of the Demolition Boys is only holding you back!_

XXX

Max was groggy when he woke up, but he spotted Kenny, back on his laptop and shaking.

"Huh?" He turned to see that Tyson was gone and then returned his focus on the teen a bed away from him; "Chief?"

"It's awful! The White Tigers have lost to Kai!" Kenny exclaimed and Max starred at him in horror; "This time Kai battled them _all_, one on one, no one else on his team battled,"

"Kai… He… He took their bit beasts?" Max asked and Kenny nodded slowly.

"Yea, only Kevin was safe, he never battled,"

"This is bad," Dizzi commented.

"Yea, but he need to face us," Max told them and they heard a knock at the door; "Come in!"

Opening door Judy stood, all ready and packed to go back to America, Max jumped off the bed and hugged her, wishing that she could stay, to offer support and advice.

"Max, please be careful," She told him softly and he nodded; "I've got you something," She let him got and pulled out a beyblade from her pocket; "I hope you don't mind Kenny, but I wanted to give my Maxie here a special beyblade,"

"Oh, that's fine," Kenny said with a smile, relieved he had one less beyblade to worry about when Dizzi caught his attention; "Max!"

"Huh?" The blonde turned to look at Kenny, who was starring wide eyed at his laptop; "What's wrong?"

"It's Tyson and Rei, I made sure that we didn't lose them by adding in a homing device to their heavy coasts," He blushed at admitting that; "When we thought Kai was ill with a fever I took the liberty of putting a tracker on every coat. But Tyson and Rei look like they are in trouble! I am guessing it must be one of the Demolition Boys they are battling,"

"Kai," Max said with certainy.

"We should get going, where are they?"

Kenny told her all the information and she got on the phone, all of them heading to the airport, Max and Kenny got their own helicopter to take them to the lake that Tyson and Rei were battling Kai.

As they got closer to the action they could clearly see that the two Bladebreakers were outmatched by Black Dranzer.

"Let it rip!" Max cried out, letting his new beyblade save Tyson's Dragoon from being ripped to shreds.

"What?" Kai looked over at the blonde and narrowed his eyes; "Oh good, so the three musketeers are all together again," He smirked, his eyes were completely cold, void of any real emotion; "But _never again!"_

"Kai, you don't mean that!" Max cried out to him and for a moment it felt like they were the only two in the world, Kai's attention was focused solely on him and Max's attention was just on Kai, nothing else mattered.

"Oh really? That shows how little you know me Maxie," Kai said and pointed at his beyblade; "Black Dranzer attack!"

"Let it rip!" Another voice, one so familiar and yet, those words had rarely left his lips, Kai now looked to see a flash of red light streak by Black Dranzer, causing his beyblade to back away from Max's blade.

"What was…" Kai looked to see who launched the bey and saw Kenny, his laptop nowhere in sight, just glaring at him; "So, Kenny, you've decided to join us?"

"No, I just needed to give _Dranzer_ a hand," Kenny called over to him.

"Dranzer?" Kai looked at the blue blade that glowed with red flames; "How _dare_ you bring that here!"

"Well Dranzer is pretty ticked off at you, I felt it only fair that your former bit beast should prove what _you've_ missed," Kenny told him.

"Tch…" Kai set Black Dranzer to attack his former bit beast, but to his surprise Dranzer fought back, appearing to be a lot stronger than before; "No way…"

"Dranzer know's you are ashamed of us, it's going to _prove_ to you that you should never have _given up_!" Max yelled at him and Kai just looked at him, bewildered.

"Max?"

"Let's do this!" Tyson said as the four beyblades all attacked Black Dranzer, the powerful beyblade was lost, the whirl of emotions that overwhelmed Kai made his concentration erratic at best, unable to focus on defending, on blocking and the dark phoenix couldn't do it alone.; after one more violent push, the black beyblade had stopped spinning and Kai just looked at it in shock.

"I… I lost…?" Kai never took his eyes off the beyblade; "But that's… That's impossible…"

"You gave up on us, thinking we weren't going to help you get stronger," Rei said softly, looking down at the bluenette; "Max and Kenny were right, you just don't know what friendship is,"

"I…"

"Black Dranzer was powerful at the start." Kenny said to him and he nodded slowly; "You didn't _earn_ that power alone, it was already there. You know how powerful Dranzer is, the way you train, the way you train the _team_ means that everyone gets powerful. It might not be fast, but gradual, and that is always the better way, you prove that you deserve the power that your bit beast gains, instead of cheating other's out of there power that they worked so hard for,"

"Come back to us Kai," Max said softly and held out his hand to him.

Kai looked away as the ice began to crack and suddenly he found himself sinking into the water, the violence of the beyblade battle had caused the ice to shatter around him, the power of Black Dranzer had become a death sentence. His crimson eyes looked at his former team, looking from Tyson, Rei and Kenny, until they rested on Max who stretched out his hand desperately trying to grab him, but he couldn't reach without Kai reaching back.

"I don't think he's…" Rei said, moving forward, but finding the ice had begun to break away as he tried to walk over.

"I'm…" Kai just looked into those blue orbs as he said softly; "I'm so sorry," With a sudden burst of energy, know that the team he came to Russia with would always have his back, reached for Max's hand and felt himself being dragged onto the solid ice, although he pushed Max a bit further away from the cracked ice.

"Well Kai?" Tyson looked at him as Kenny presented his Dranzer blade to him.

"Are you back?"

Taking the blue beyblade from the short teen he smiled and nodded; "Yea, yea I am. I'm…"

"Save it," Tyson said to him; "Black was never your colour anyway,"

"I just need to do one more thing, then I'll meet you back at the hotel," He told them, although Tyson, Rei and Kenny looked weary, Max nodded and handed him Black Dranzer.

Before he walked away from them, towards the helicopter that he had arrived in, he kissed Max's cheek and whispered something in Russian before going off.

"…Huh?" Max watched him go, wondering what he had tried to tell him.

_Why couldn't he say it in English?_


	12. Chapter 12

Title: Odd2 Chapter 12

Rating: T

Notes: A quick thanks very much to everyone who had read, reviewed, faved ect. This is the last part! I really hope you all enjoyed reading it.

Summary: Kai has returned to where he truly belongs, but now he needs to prove himself, not just for his team but to himself.

When the Bladebreakers arrived back at their hotel, none of them knew how to feel, after all they had managed to get their team captain back, they _proved_ to him that although they didn't have the power like Black Dranzer, their faith in their own skills and the friendship they all had was worth some much more than being given an easy ride. They were powerful _together_.

"What if he lied to us?" Tyson thought as he sat down on one of the seats in his hotel room, he bit his thumb nail as he thought.

"Nah, that's not like Kai," Max said and the other teen looked at him angrily.

"Yea, but it's like him to stab us in the back?"

"Tyson, we've gone through this all ready, Kai doesn't understand the meaning of friendship…" Kenny began, but Tyson interrupted him.

"He's dating Max! Does no one else see the problem here?" He cried out, looking at them all, wondering why he was the only one who got the problem.

"We are going slowly," Max informed him, although after what had happened he wondered where they should place their relationship now; "Besides he's back with us, he'll be back, trust me," 

"I do trust you Max, but I still don't trust _him_," Tyson informed him.

"I'm pretty sure friendship needs to have some kind of trust," They all turned to see Kai standing at the doorway and he nodded to them; "But that's fine, I'll just prove myself,"

"Kai, what did you have to do?" Rei asked, but then he saw the light in Kai's eyes, a gleam, telling him he probably didn't want to know the full details.

"I just gave Black Dranzer back," Kai shrugged and sat next to Max; "So?" He looked at the others in question. 

"Well, I guess we should start back with some more training," Kenny told him, and sat at his other side, to show how much the team had improved, Kai looked over the information carefully, taking in everything that he had missed; "My only concern is we have no information on the Demolition Boys,"

"Yea, they like to attack quickly, with no wasted moves," Kai commented and noticed they all stared at him, wanting him to dish the dirt on the Abbey, sighing he gave them what they wanted; "Boris is making an army of beybladers, what you saw at the Abbey on that first day is _nothing_ compared to what was going on further underground,"

"How long has it been going on for?" Max asked him, if Kai knew more about the Abbey than they did, then it _must_ be part of his past, although he felt a shiver run down his spine as he thought; _Further down the Abbey? They have underground training facilities? It must be huge if there are so many people becoming beybladers… Its worse that they are all going to become an army of them._

"Years," He closed his eyes for a moment, deciding that he had to tell them the truth, they had proven that they were strong with or without him, they deserved to know; "It's where I grew up,"

"Wha?" and "No way!" Came from the other four, they never expected to learn that.

"Aw dude, we just thought you heard so much info on those guys because you used to live here!" Tyson exclaimed, although it did explain so much, although those kids seemed brainwashed and Kai didn't, he was always so cold, the Abbey would have been the best place to make him like that; cold hearted and uncaring. Until they came into his life and slowly wore down his cold heart, allowing Max to break through a little gap.

"I was being trained to be the strongest beyblader, but as a child curiosity got the better of me, when we saw Black Dranzer for the first time. I decided that it was going to be _my _beyblade, but I didn't have the power to control it, instead I destroyed part of the Abbey and was unconscious,"

"But, you came to Japan?" Kenny asked, not understanding how Kai could go from living in Russia to living in Japan, it took months of paper work to do that.

"Yea, my grandfather owns the BioVolt Company, who _runs_ the Abbey, he's based in Japan, that's why I lived there," Kai clarified.

"Your _grandfather?"_ Rei checked making sure he wasn't hearing things.

"Yes,"

"Who could do that to their grandchild?" Max said, trying to get his head around it all and found himself unable to; "Who could force to make a kid some solider?"

"Why does he want an army of…?"

"To take over the world," Mr Dickinson interrupted them and they all looked over at the old man who stood by the doorway, looking at them all with a grim expression; "We've heard many rumours about the Abbey, but we didn't know what was going on, none of our investigators could get in to find out,"

"Yea, security is tight. It's like Boris said, they start training early, they always have in Russia," Kai informed them; "That's why no one batted an eye lid at the training facilities here, it's expected,"

"So, you're Russian?" Max asked with a slight smile.

Kai shook his head; "No, at least, not a Russian citizen. My mother was half Russian and half Japanese. My Grandfather already owned this company by the time she came into the family life,"

The group listened carefully, it was something new, to have Kai disclose such information about his family and everyone wanted to know more, but there was only so much information that the bluenette to give out so readily and that was the most important information that they _had_ to know about.

"We should get ready and train," Kenny said and looked over to Rei and Tyson, who both nodded and left the room.

"Kai, why do they need to steal other's bit beasts?" Mr Dickinson asked entering the room fully as Rei closed the door behind himself, deciding that Kai had given out enough information that and he could use it in the BBA's investigations.

"Because of their power. Combine all those bit beasts together, with all their different skills, and you would have the ultimate beyblader," Kai remembered what he had been told by Boris when he rejoined the Abbey it was what Black Dranzer had been created for, to be the _ultimate_ beyblade.

"I… I see," He took his leave and wished them luck in training and once more the door was closed behind him.

"Can we beat them though? That's my question," Kenny said as he looked down over everyone's data once more, he needed to update Kai's, since he had started a new data bank for his Black Dranzer, but that wasn't relevant any more.

Kai remained silent and Kenny felt his heart thudding in his chest; _Please, please say we can! I don't want to have those guys take over the world…_

"What's the data that you have for our team?" Kai asked and looked at the computer screen, carefully looking over the information once more; "All right, the training is going well, but it needs to be more intense,"

"But we're already training hard?" Max asked, not sure that was going on, were the Demolition Boys really that powerful?

"Trust me, the harder we train the better our chances. You caught me out with your new beyblade, but even then, without all your speeches and…" Kai trailed off but Kenny just nodded at him.

"If we had just given up on you, had seen you as nothing more than a traitor, then we would have been defeated,"

"They are that powerful?"

"Yea, I can give you weakness'' but I doubt it will help, we just need to train for longer and _harder_, anything could happen with those guy's, so we need to be prepared," Kai continued and began to give Kenny more information while Max left the room to join Rei and Tyson in training.

"You know, I am so glad you are back," Dizzi finally said and Kai looked at the laptop in surprise; "I know, but we needed you Kai, the team just didn't feel like a team with you being gone,"

"I…"

"I agree," Kenny said softly; "You are an important member of our team, you have our backs, even though you might not say exactly what could help us in a battle, you always give enough clues that we can find out own way to it. You help keep Tyson on a tight leash – which is a feat in itself! You help me with training and you let Rei talk to you about things that he knows the rest of us wouldn't understand,"

"And Max, poor guy pined for you," Dizzi added and Kai smiled.

"It's good to be back,"

XXX

The day had finally arrived, the Demolition Boys verses the Bladebreakers, it was the day of the ultimate beyblade battle, but few knew how serious this battle was going to be.

"There's a lot riding on this," Kenny said to Dizzi as he finished off everyone's beyblades, Rei had allowed the youngest member of the team to have Driger during the night, but it was 'only this one time'.

"Yea, I really hope the guys will be okay," Dizzi said, her voice tinged with worry.

"Yea. We haven't figured out who should be battling today either, Kai wasn't sure, he knew Tyson _had_ to battle, there was no way we'd be able to keep him on the bench without him starting a riot of some kind,"

"From everything Kai has told us it's hard to say Chief," Dizzi said, going through all the information that had been processed; "Kai should be in the match, to prove that Boris has no hold on him,"

"Yea, I agree, but what if he goes against…"

"You know you really should go down for breakfast Chief, you've been in the same position all night!" Max said as he walked into the room and picked up his beyblade and also Kai's beyblade, who had walked in behind him.

"You haven't slept?" Kai asked and Kenny looked away.

"Kai you really think he would?" Dizzi asked him and he shook his head.

"No, but still, we need you to be level headed," Kai told him and Kenny nodded slowly.

"I'll just drink lots of coffee,"

"Better hurry, we're leaving soon," Max pointed out to him and Kenny checked the clock on his laptop and then the clock next to his bed.

With a cry he left the room, running down the hall as Max laughed quietly and looked over at the laptop;

"How bad is he?"

"Max today is a serious day, more so than any other. Kenny wants to make sure your beyblades are in tip top condition," Dizzi informed him and Max just nodded.

"I know, but he's always so tense…"

"It's his passion," Kai informed him; "We don't have to get it, but he enjoy's what he does, he might grumble about it from time to time, but this is more than a hobby to him, if he wanted to he could get into the BBA and be a technical analyst,"

"So why doesn't he?"

"Age restrictions," Dizzi said, making sure they didn't forget that she was still on; "And Kenny loves you guy's, how could he just leave?" 

"What was he worrying about when we came in?" Kai asked her.

"Who should spin. Although Tyson _has_ to,"

"It would be awful if he didn't…" Max noticed the look Kai gave him and held his hands up; "It's true, he'd be a big distraction!"

"So Tyson's in, what else?" Kai asked her.

"Well, Rei would be the best bet," Dizzi trailed off for a moment, gathering data on how to bring this out; "The problem between yourself and Max is your bit beast types,"

"Spencer is likely to spin," Kai stated.

"Kai should do it," Max announced the Kai looked at him in surprise, though the blonde just grinned at him; "You have so much more to prove than I do,"

The bluenette remained silent and then nodded; "All right, we have a plan,"

A few hours later however the plan unravelled, Kai was the first to spin and after two battled he was defeated, but as he came back to his team, he found himself not caring.

_I did my best, I gave it my all._

"Kai, I'm…" Kenny began but the bluenette dismissed him, his focus on Rei, who was up against Bryan.

"Watch yourself Rei, Bryan deals out some heavy punishment," With that advice taken Rei headed out.

"If I had done more research on Spencer's blade…" Kenny said, knowing he was at fault for Kai losing Dranzer.

"Don't worry about it," Kai told him, but his eyes never left the beydish; "Right now Rei needs our support,"

As they watched, they found that Bryan did like to deal out some heavy punishment, _physical_ punishment with his own bit beast. However although Rei was in pain, he was unwilling to give up; _If Kai can give it his all, even though the odds were stacked up against him, then why can't I?_

"Go Driger!" He cried out, as his hair came undone and his beyblade seat Bryan's out of the dish for the second time; but after that attack he fell to the ground, exhausted.

"Rei!" The team ran over to him, the White Tiger's joined them as the medical staff ran across and carried Rei off to the hospital, with Mariah going with him.

"He…" Max began, he never thought he would ever see someone that beaten up over this sport.

"He gave it his all," Kai finished for him and looked at Tyson; "You're up next,"

"Yea, don't worry, I've got this," Tyson told him confidently.

"Watch yourself Tyson, they are playing hard ball," Kai warned him and the other teen nodded.

"I will, I've got you guys watching my back too," He walked away from them, heading to the beydish where Tala was waiting for him.

The first battle started off promising, although Kai knew that the red head was holding back, making Tyson feel more confident and he'd make a mistake.

_Even if we warn him, he wouldn't listen_. Kai thought as Kenny called out to him, as he predicted, Tyson's beyblade was out.

Although surprised, Tyson looked at the red head, determined that BioVolt _wouldn't_ win.

_There is too much to lose, I can't… I won't let them win!_

The final match was one that had everyone holding their breath, it looked to be so close, but in the end Tyson managed to win it all and freed all the bit beasts that had been stolen, including Dranzer.

"Yes!" Max and Kenny cheered, jumping up and down while Kai looked on with a smile.

"Good job Tyson," He commented as the other teen came down and the other two hugged him, his garnet gaze went across the stadium to where his grandfather had been sitting, only to find him being escorted out by the police and Boris had disappeared; _It doesn't matter, that is my past and my future…_ He looked over at his team, wanting to join in but knowing that he couldn't, knowing that the barrier that was there was unlikely to leave him, instead Max saw him looking at them and moved towards him.

He held out his hand and Kai grasped it and pulled the blonde towards him, although they didn't touch.

"Now what?" He asked softly.

"We go home, we'll do this slowly," Max whispered back with a smile that was contagious; "You can tell me what you want, we can hang out as friends,"

"No," Kai removed his hand from Max's grasp and his cold mask was back on, leaving the blond completely confused.

"Kai? But…"

"I don't _want_ to be just a friend to you Max," He said clearly as Tyson and Kenny looked at them although the crowds cheering hadn't stopped; "I want us to go out together, as we were _supposed_ to be doing,"

Max blinked in surprise, but a smile returned, noticing that Kai's eyes weren't harsh and cold, but they seemed to be getting warm and hopeful.

"Sure! I'd like that,"

Tyson looked over at Tala who was looking around for Boris, as was the rest of his team, but they didn't catch sight of him.

"Hey guys!" He called over to them and Tala glared at him, as if it was his fault that Boris had disappeared; "Why not let Mr Dickinson help?" 

Blue eyes widened in surprise and looked over to Kai, who had heard the exchange and walked over to him; "What do you have to lose?"

"Why should we trust the enemy? And a _traitor_," Tala spat out and Tyson was ready to snap at him when Kai spoke.

"Because you and I both know what would happen if you were to return to the Abbey having lost. If Boris is still there it might even be the death of all of you," Kai added, although his own team thought it was dramatic, the Demolition Boys knew it to be true.

"All right, so then what?" Tala demanded to know, then noticed that Mr Dickinson was walking over to them, with some police following; "Huh? What's this?"

"Kai has told us a lot of what has been going on at the Abbey," The older man said to Tala, who became defensive; "We need as much information as possible and with you four boys having been part of it for so long, you could aid our investigation,"

The rest of his team all looked at their red haired leader, and he could feel their eyes boring into him and finally he nodded slowly; "Fine,"

"But, where will they live?" Tyson asked and the opposing team looked at him in shock, after all he did sound _concerned_ for them; "They can't…"

"Don't worry Tyson, we have accommodation getting ready for them,"

"You can't stay in Russia," Kai stated and everyone looked at him; "Help Mr Dickinson in his investigations and you guys can stay with me for a while, until this settles down,"

"We don't need your charity," Tala snarled at him, but Kai didn't even blink.

"I'm just helping an old friend, Tala,"

Max looked at them in surprise as Tala seemed to have calmed down once more and nodded before leading his team off to be interviewed.

"Well, this has been some trip," Kenny commented with a smile; "But I don't know if I want to see Russia again in such a hurry,"

"Kai, are you sure you want them…" Tyson began and the bluenette smirked.

"Trust me, I know what they are like," Kai assured him as they walked out of the arena and found people cheering their names.

"So, how are you going to tell them that we're…" Max began and Kai shook his head.

"We'll go slowly, like you said," He whispered; "I want you and Kenny around my place though, you two were the key to making me…"

"Open up?" Max suggested as they got on the bus, managing to get away from their new fans.

"Yea, they might need more time, but…"

"They'll need more help Kai," Kenny said as they waited for Tyson to get on the bus; "After all they've been there for much longer than you, they are damaged to such a degree that certain things might never come back to them,"

"Like?" Max asked, wanting to know what kind of example the shorter teen would come up with.

"Well, fun for example. Our sense of fun is probably different to theirs,"

Kai nodded, knowing it was indeed true; "Even so, if there is a chance that we can help them we should try,"

Kenny giggled; "You're sounding like Max. I guess this is what happens when you're a couple,"

"We're going slow," Max stated and Kenny nodded.

"So long as I am not going to be the odd one out I am fine with it," He declared and saw Kai take Max's hand into his own, deciding now to go and see what updates their beyblades would need.

"I'm never going to leave you again," Kai whispered, now nose to nose with Max, who smiled and moved in for a kiss.

"Aw guy's! Get a room!" Tyson cried out as he got onto the bus.


End file.
